Mohammad Islam has refused requests to apologise since it was ruled he had “brought office into disrepute”, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Mohammad Islam at his mayor-making ceremony with (right) director of law and governance Terry Osborne (credit Enfield Council)

The chair of Enfield Council’s conduct committee says he’s “baffled” the borough’s disgraced ex-mayor has still not apologised – while the civic centre’s legal chief admits there’s “not much we can do”.

Mohammad Islam was rebuked by the committee in August for breaching the council’s code of conduct on three counts – including “bringing his office into disrepute” – for using his position as mayor to support visa applications for friends and family, against the advice of council officers.

Cllr Islam was also suspended by the Labour Party, but continues to serve as an independent councillor for Ponders End ward.

The conduct committee’s August ruling sanctioned Cllr Islam by asking him to make a written apology, undertake training on the code of conduct, and not wear his past mayor badge. He was also ordered not to use his position as a councillor to support visa applications in future.

Terry Osborne, the council’s director of law and governance, told the latest meeting of the conduct committee on Monday (17th) that Cllr Islam had now emailed her, but not “in the way requested by the committee”.

She said: “He has not apologised and, despite the reasonable requests from the committee, he has not agreed to undergo training, and I have asked him to let me know when he will agree to do that. It is very disappointing and there’s not very much we can do as a committee or a council.”

Committee chair Bektas Ozer also emailed the councillor asking him to respond and Osborne said the committee would “continue trying” to impose its sanctions.

Committee member Rick Jewell said: “I was looking at the email that came through earlier, where Cllr Islam has committed to comply with the decision that we made, yet there’s no evidence of that compliance, is there?

“The badge we know he wore two weeks after our meeting [in August], at an event. The letter of apology, that’s not forthcoming […] and the other one was training. I don’t understand when he says he is fully committed to complying.”

Cllr Ozer said he believed the committee had been “quite lenient” with its sanctions, pointing out it did not ask Cllr Islam to return his badge.

Commenting on how the sanctions could have been “done and dusted”, Cllr Ozer said: “It’s going to be tomorrow’s press again, it’s going to continue, and it’s going to be spoken about again.

“I don’t think he’s going to care, but it really baffles me that he is unable to see this.”

Osborne also explained that central government was consulting on re-introducing a standards board, a non-departmental public body which was abolished in 2012 and was previously responsible for promoting ethical standards in local government.

Despite not wanting to see “more processes and bureaucracy to deal with an issue that is not that much of an issue” she said in some cases there were “many complaints” and there was a desire “nationally” for a “more robust system”.

Following the discussion, Osborne and the chair agreed to contact Cllr Islam again to ask him to comply with the committee’s request.

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