BWA: Follow the Money. Follow the Power. Follow the Silence… Now Follow the Network

Follow the Money. Follow the Power. Follow the Silence… Now Follow the Network

(Or: How many red flags does it take before someone actually answers a question?)

Let’s take a step back.

This started simply enough:

💷 Follow the Money – unexplained reserves, rising costs, missing detail
🏛  Follow the Power – overlapping roles, influence, governance gaps
🔇 Follow the Silence – unanswered emails, ignored questions
⚖️ Follow the Escalation – regulators now involved

And now?

🗳 Follow the Network

Because with local elections looming, everything has suddenly come into focus.

The Bit They Don’t Want to Talk About

Here’s what we know — not rumours, not speculation — just plain, observable facts:

• The CEO of a publicly funded charity is also a serving councillor

• That same organisation operates out of council-owned community centres

• The charity is connected into funding structures like Sandwell Consortium

• Multiple individuals connected to that ecosystem are now:
  👉 standing as political candidates

Let’s list it plainly:

• Syeda Khatun – Councillor & CEO – standing in Tipton Green

• Khurshid Haque – candidate in Tipton Green

• Nahid Iqbal – candidate

  • proposed by Khatun

  • seconded by Haque

Elsewhere:

• Suzanne Hartwell – Cabinet Member – standing again in Oldbury, employed by BWA

• Geoff Deakin – candidate in Princes End – reported links to BWA and long term partner of Suzanne Hartwell.

Now ask yourself:

👉 Does that look like coincidence?
👉 Or does that look like a network?

Let’s Talk About Governance (Or the Lack of It)

Because while all this is happening…

• Trustees haven’t responded to a single email

• Not one

• Not even an acknowledgement

Deadlines came and went:

📅 December – ignored
📅 January – ignored
📅 February – still nothing

At this point, we’re not dealing with oversight.

👉 We’re dealing with deliberate silence

And for a charity handling:

• public money

• public assets

• community services

That’s not just poor governance…

👉 that is the governance issue.

The Money Still Doesn’t Add Up

Let’s not forget where this began.

The numbers:

• ~£318,000 in reserves

• ~£177,000 unrestricted

• ~£344,000 sitting in the bank

• Staffing costs up by ~£63,000

• Now moving into deficit

👉 And still taking public money.

Simple question:

👉 Why?

Still no answer.

The Stuff We Haven’t Been Shown

Despite repeated requests:

• No centre-level accounts

• No asset registers

• No breakdown of funding

• No clarity on IT suite spending

• No explanation of staffing increases

👉 Nothing.

Apparently, the easiest way to deal with questions…

…is not to answer them.

And Then There’s the Safeguarding Question

Now this is where things get serious.

It is publicly reported that Khurshid Haque:

• was suspended as a social worker

• in relation to an unapproved boarding arrangement for boys

• where findings referenced risk of serious harm to children

Let’s be clear:

⚖️ This is public record
⚖️ This blog is not adding to it
⚖️ It is simply asking:

👉 What due diligence has been carried out?

Because when someone with that background is:

• standing for election

• connected to community structures

• linked to organisations serving the public

👉 The bar for transparency goes up, not down.

The FOI Farce

Meanwhile, over at the Council:

• They admit they hold the information

• Then refuse to provide it

• Then uphold their own refusal

And helpfully add:

“There is no reporting mechanism”

So let’s get this straight:

👉 Public money is being spent
👉 But there’s no central way to track it

Nothing to see here…

The Bigger Picture

Individually, each issue might be explained.

Together?

You get a pattern:

• no answers

• no transparency

• no engagement

• growing political overlap

• safeguarding questions

• regulators now involved

👉 That’s not noise.

👉 That’s a problem.

The Question That Won’t Go Away

At this point, it’s not complicated.

The public is asking:

👉 Who is overseeing this?
👉 Who is accountable?
👉 Who is making sure this is being run properly?

And the answer so far has been:

🔇 Silence
📭 No response
🚫 Avoidance

Final Thought

This didn’t need to go this far.

At any point, someone could have:

✔ answered
✔ explained
✔ clarified

Instead, we’ve had:

• silence

• escalation

• and now… scrutiny from all angles

Because in the end:

👉 If you don’t answer questions…
👉 the questions don’t go away

They get louder.

And right now?

A lot of people are getting seriously…

👉 Haqued Off.

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