Simon Harris: Council admits 'lack of controls' over payments

Essex County Council has previously said it made the payments to Simon Harris out of "expediency"

A council leader has admitted to a series of failures over payments to an internet prankster.

Simon Harris received more than £500,000 from Essex County Council to run Facebook groups and carry out other work during the Covid pandemic.

He kept most of the cash but insisted it covered more than updating social media content.

Kevin Bentley, the leader of the council, described aspects of the payments as "regrettable and wrong".

Mr Bentley, in an address to the council, detailed a lack of oversight and controls in relation to the money paid to Mr Harris and others, which the authority had previously said had been done out of 'expediency'.

Opposition councillors described their shock and called for an urgent independent investigation.

Mr Bentley said the correct procedure to procure the services of Mr Harris and others had not been followed.

Some of the spending went outside the procurement rules, he added, but waivers had not been granted for most of the money spent.

Council leader Kevin Bentley has admitted the council lost track of the payments

Mr Bentley told the chamber: "Some of the contracts were not signed and that processes were not always followed around declarations of interest."

Referring to Mr Harris, the Conservative leader said money was paid to an individual "to pass onto others. That was not good practice either."

Mr Bentley also disclosed how the council's "central services" team had not been made aware of the payments, and had they been informed "it would not have been allowed to happen in this way".

Poor record keeping by the staff who had made these decisions was also highlighted in his statement and there was a lack of information around why the payments had been made.

Kirsty O'Callaghan, a former senior member of the council's public health team, approved some of the payments to Mr Harris and others according to records released by the council.

The BBC has not been able to contact Ms O'Callaghan despite extensive efforts to reach her.

The payments have been referred to the council's Audit, Governance and Standards Committee for further investigation.

'Genuinely shocked'

Mike Mackrory, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said that the council may need to be subject to an independent investigation with "no stone left unturned", and that there had been an "apparent lack of control" when it came to spending taxpayers money.

He added: "This embarrassing saga does not cover this council in glory."

One branch of Essex County Council authorised the spending without informing its central staff, it has emerged

Aidan McGurran, a Labour councillor, said he was "genuinely shocked at governance arrangements here" and called for a "full forensic investigation as a matter of urgency".

Andrew Sheldon, a Conservative councillor, said that while he supported an investigation into the matter, the Facebook page had been popular and served as an important source of information for the public, which was not political, during a crisis.

He said: "It does wonderful things for our county. It's a brand not associated with politics, it's good informative stuff for our county."

The Tiger King

Almost £1m was paid by the council to "social media suppliers" between April 2017 and March 2024, according to documents.

Among the recipients of public money was Florida-based animal rights activist Carole Baskin, who featured in the Netflix series The Tiger King.

She had been paid an undisclosed amount to provide a video message to Essex residents.

Mr Harris, who is based near Southend-on-Sea, also runs a parenting blog and had gained notoriety online after he targeted Conservative politicians and policies in a series of internet stunts.

He was paid to run the Essex Coronavirus Action Facebook page, which was later renamed Essex is United, and passed on at least £163,190 to sub-contractors according to documents released by the county council.

Mr Harris confirmed that he kept the remainder of the £530,000 as payment for his services.

Previously he told the BBC that through his work about 5,000 volunteers had been recruited to support shielding during the pandemic and vaccination efforts.

"The funding, the majority of which was clustered during the most serious stages of the pandemic, was not only for my services," he said.

He has been approached for further comment.