THE chief executive of Middlesbrough Council under oath that he “completely refuted” the suggestion that former monitoring officer Karen Whitmore had been asked to cover up issues surrounding the sale of Grade I-listed Acklam Hall.

Mrs Whitmore claims she was forced out of her job in the higher echelons of the council after raising concerns over sale of assets including the Hall, property in Gilkes Street, Middlesbrough, and the Training and Development Centre (TAD). She is claiming she was harassed and victimised – but has now dropped a claim of sexual discrimination.

While still working for the council, she carried out an internal report into the sale of Acklam Hall, which fetched a price of just £1.2m when it was sold off by the council.

But she claimed when she raised concerns about the publicly-owned properties, she was bullied and threatened, made redundant from her job in a “flawed process” and finally escorted out of the office.

Yesterday, as current interim chief executive Tony Parkinson took the stand, he said : “I was open that there were process issues around Acklam Hall. There was never any sense of trying to cover anything up.”

Mrs Whitmore’s solicitor, Julie Dalzell, said: “You were unhappy with her reporting of the property issues and you wanted to find a way to dismiss her. You looked at capability and then you looked at redundancy.”

Mr Parkinson replied: “That isn’t true, that just isn’t true. As regards the property transactions there is nothing to hide, other than the issues around the clarity of the audit trail. That is it. There is nothing to hide.”

He said that in his job at the time, as director of transformation, he had instigated the investigation looking into the issues around property sales.

“I originally raised the issues that required investigation and the internal audit took place,” he told the tribunal, at Teesside Combined Court Centre.

“Then very soon after learning that it wasn’t in the public domain last year I placed it in the public domain.”

The investigation into the asset sales, which had been overseen by director of economic regeneration Kevin Parkes, was carried out by Mrs Whitmore.

However, later on Mr Parkes was the senior council officer called on to carry out Mrs Whitmore’s job evaluation.

The Council’s barrister Christopher Jeans QC said: “Was there a conflict between Kevin Parkes being investigated by Karen and then him carrying out her job evaluation?”

Mr Parkinson said “I didn’t see any conflict. I thought the relationship was fine. He had some issues about the report but that is not uncommon.”

Gilkes Street and the TAD Centre were sold off to businessman Nasser Din, former Mayor Ray Mallon’s election agent.

Mrs Whitmore’s investigation into Acklam Hall showed that the audit trail through the sale process wasl “very poor”, but she claimed she was pressured to cover this up. The tribunal continues.