An ex-employee, who identified himself only as “Henry”, earlier this month launched a blog painting a picture of endemic fraud, bullying and mismanagement in the Agency.
In nearly 30 posts, all dated January 2014, Henry made a broad range of charges against his former colleagues, including widespread skiving, racially motivated targeting and manipulation of incident data. A number of commenters corroborated his perspective, while others called him a “traitor” and rebutted his assertions.
Explaining his decision to leave the organisation, Henry said: “Having spent a long while at the Environment Agency, it had long sunk in that the noise I was making internally had only done one thing – highlight me as a person who needed to be removed from the organisation. It was only a matter of time before I would have been forced from my position and so I had no other choice but to leave. This has now given me the opportunity to express openly the internal mindset and inefficient operations of the organisation that I once held to high esteem.”
Henry told Utility Week he had lodged a complaint with Environment Agency chief executive Paul Leinster. However, an Environment Agency spokesperson indicated that Henry had not raised this complaint formally. The spokesperson said: “We take all complaints of misuse of public funds seriously. We have made attempts to contact the individual so that they may lodge a complaint formally and, if they wish to, use the Environment Agency whistleblowing policy or make a public information disclosure. In the meantime, we are monitoring the posts to assess if we have enough information to instigate our own investigation.”
The Agency is slashing 15 per cent of its staff to 9,700 by next October. In light of recent flooding, some have questioned whether the Agency can maintain protection for those at risk effectively.
In a report published on Tuesday, MPs urged ministers to clarify how the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) would fulfil its emergency response remit in the face of cuts totalling £300 million.
Anne McIntosh, chair of the Efra Select Committee, said: “Recent flooding events over the Christmas and New year period reinforce the Committee’s concerns about cuts to the Defra budget and how these will be realised.”
Leinster told the ENDS Report last October this would be “painful”. He said: “This could hit our morale; it could hit our performance. It’s difficult. But as managers we need to make sure we lead the organisation through this.”
Henry argued the cuts should go further, however. He calculated the budget for England is greater than that for equivalent agencies in Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and Austria combined.
An Agency spokesperson said: “The Environment Agency has to save money and reduce staff numbers, like the rest of the public sector. We are looking to protect frontline services and our ability to respond to flooding when it occurs. The Environment Agency will still be a £1 billion business with around 10,000 staff, covering a range of work to protect people and the environment.”