Caerphilly County Borough Council has made good progress on implementing recommendations made by the Wales Audit Office (WAO).
A follow-up report by the WAO, published this month, found the council has made good progress in addressing most of the recommendations made in previous reports.
However, while its progress in responding to recommendations is good, the council has not yet taken a lawful decision on the buy out of Chief Officers’ annual leave and essential car user allowances.
In December 2013, a special public interest report from the WAO concluded that payments totalling almost £220,000 to ‘buy out’ car and annual leave allowances were unlawful.
The payments, made early in 2012, were part of an agreement to compensate senior bosses who were giving up car and annual leave allowances to bring them in line with other workers.
The December 2013 report said the decision to make the one-off payments was done without proper authority or clear recording of how the decision was made.
Speaking on the latest report, Auditor General for Wales Huw Vaughan Thomas said: “I am pleased to see Caerphilly Council implementing the recommendations outlined in our previous reports. The work undertaken will go a long way to ensuring the organisation is operating correctly and legally.
“With this in mind, the council now needs to take lawful decisions in regard to the buy out of annual leave and essential car users allowance and I hope to see some progress made on these matters in the near future.”
As well as the recommendation around annual leave and car user allowance decisions, the Auditor General has included eight proposals for improvement which include:
- Reviewing the role and effectiveness of its scrutiny committees.
- Raising awareness of its internal whistle-blowing policy to staff.
- Developing a robust action plan for improving internal audit.
- Prioritising the development of a HR strategy and workforce plan.
Councillor Keith Reynolds, Leader of the Council said, “We welcome the positive feedback from the Wales Audit Office and their acknowledgement that clear improvements continue to be made.
“Much work has been done over the past 12 months to deliver these improvements, but we also recognise that there are still a few issues that still need to be resolved. We will now focus our attention on addressing these outstanding recommendations as a matter of urgency.
“Residents will be reassured to hear that Caerphilly Council is on a steady path of improvement and we remain committed to delivering high quality services to all sections of our community.”
Cllr Colin Mann, leader of the Plaid Cymru group on Caer?philly? Council, said: “Progress has been made which? is pleasing but clearly there is still much to do.
“I’ve had inquiries from members of the public over the issue of the buy-out of chief officers’ annual leave and essential car user allowances asking when it has been addressed. I did raise the matter with the previous Interim Chief Executive and it is disappointing that there appears to be little progress.
“Up to now the council has not taken the necessary action and needs to do to make things lawful. There is clearly work to be done and the sooner progress is made the better.The fact that many senior officers are still in ‘acting roles’ must be a factor in the situation.
?”?The council needs to come up with definite proposals to address the eight ???P?roposals for Improvement raised by the WAO report?.”?