South Wales Evening Post - 14 October 2006
Swansea Council is refusing to comment over claims of a mysterious tape given to them by police.
Sources at the council say it contains senior people at the authority discussing deals and alleged corporate kickbacks.
But despite repeated requests for information by the Evening Post for more than two week, Swansea Council is remaining silent.
The Post has asked the council to confirm whether it has the tape or a transcript, who is on it, what is said and whether it will be investigating its contents.
That was on September 26, but the Post has had no reply.
Police sources told the Post details of the tape had been passed to the council after it was handed to detectives anonymously.
A source at South Wales Police said: "The council has been given a copy of the tape's contents and it is currently looking at what is said."
He added it had not been confirmed who was on the tape.
A Swansea Council source told the Post those on the tape talked about senior council figures and their role in deals and councillors' need to declare an interest in those deals.
The source said: "There is definitely a transcript of the tape at County Hall.
"From what I have been told the tape doesn't contain anything untoward, but the council seems worried about it for some reason.
"The tape contains two people talking, one is giving information and seems to be a council insider and uses a lot of jargon and they are talking about deals and corporate kickbacks and names are named."
The Post is planning to submit a Freedom of Information request in an attempt to obtain a copy of the transcript.
