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A Caerphilly councillor has said recruitment policies for senior officer roles should be reviewed to find out whether they are sufficiently competitive.

Caerphilly County Borough Council recently hired a new chief executive and three other service directors – all of which were internal appointments.

The Plaid Cymru opposition group has suggested there is a lack of external candidates who apply for and reach the final interview stage for top roles.

“All councillors should want to know why there are so few applications for highly-paid roles so it can be addressed,” said Plaid councillor Greg Ead.

He questioned whether the high-profile departures of two previous chief executives may have “led to the council having a poor reputation and put potential applicants off”.

“We need to find out, and that is why I believe a comprehensive review of senior appointments needs to be carried out,” said Cllr Ead, who questioned whether some might see a flurry of internal appointments as so-called ‘jobs for the boys’.

Caerphilly Council’s leader has defended the recruitment process and suggested the criticisms are “political game-playing”.

The local authority named Richard Edmunds as its new chief executive in January, and the new man soon announced a restructure of senior management designed to save the cash-strapped council £1 million.

The recruitment process for three new director roles was carried out behind closed doors throughout the spring, and in May the council confirmed the appointment of the successful candidates.

In each case, the new hire was previously working at a senior level at the council.

Plaid has described the application process as attracting “little outside interest” in two cases.

“The current situation seems to be that all four executive director posts, including the chief executive, have not been recruited through a competitive selection interview process, raising serious concerns about the leadership of the council,” the group claimed.

Responding to the criticisms, a spokesperson for Caerphilly Council said the recruitment processes for senior officers are “long established, robust and thorough”.

Hiring involves “multiple stages” of meetings with a cross-party group of councillors, as well as assessments by an “independent external company”.

The spokesperson said the council was “surprised” by Cllr Ead’s comments, and also challenged some of Plaid’s claims around the level of interest in the vacancies.

“We are confident that our recruitment process is appropriately objective and challenging for such senior appointments,” the spokesperson added. “Indeed, Cllr Ead himself voted in support of the appointment of the chief executive with no concerns raised at that point.”

Cllr Sean Morgan, who leads Caerphilly Council, said he had “full confidence in the council’s recruitment process and full confidence in our recent senior appointments – all of whom underwent a rigorous, fair, and competitive process based on merit”.

“This all smacks of political game playing”, he alleged, pointing out the appointments committee involved in the recent recruitments included two Plaid councillors.

Cllr Morgan suggested Cllr Ead was “not only questioning the integrity of his Plaid colleagues… but is also questioning his own actions, as he voted in favour of appointing the chief executive at a full council meeting”.

“I wonder why Cllr Ead is using spurious tactics to keep his name in the paper, even at the expense of the reputation of his own colleagues?” added Cllr Morgan.