Caerphilly Council
A lot has happened in the two weeks since my last Observer column. Avon and Somerset Police has been called in following the damning unlawful verdict from the Wales Audit Office on the decision on Caerphilly council top officers’ pay, the chief executive has been suspended and an acting chief executive appointed.
In addition, a special meeting will be held this week where reports on interim governance arrangements and officers’ disciplinary process will be discussed.
It has been suggested elsewhere that the Labour council has acted with openness in the wake of the pay scandal.
I’m afraid that is really pushing if you read in full the report by the Assistant Auditor General for Wales.
In January the Labour-run council, which is responsible for this mess, agreed a compromise deal with chief officers which meant they would get a lesser increase than previously implemented.
However, someone forgot to tell councillors, staff and the public that the previously very high increase would not end in January but continue on until the end of this month.
I quote word for word from the Assistant Auditor General’s report: “Although not stated at the special council meeting on January 17, 2013, the Monitoring Officer has since informed me that the reduction will come into effect from April 1, 2013.” So much for openness from Labour!
What a way to run a local authority – it’s certainly the biggest shambles I can remember in 38 years as a councillor.
Eisteddfod
It was great to attend St Cenydd School’s Eisteddfod concert last week.
Pupils danced, sang and played instruments to a very high standard in what was thoroughly enjoyable evening.
There were superb performances although it would have been nice to have seen more parents at the event.
I was on the panel of judges and it is always difficult to choose a winner because everyone who took part was a winner.
Small Business
There was an event at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay, which gave members of the Federation of Small Businesses a chance to tour the building and also meet up and chat to fellow members.
There were business people from Caerphilly and the South-East Wales branch is, in fact, the largest in Wales with 3,000 members.
These are tough times for everyone and shopping local wherever possible can help. We need our small businesses to prosper because money generated by them is largely spent locally and helps boost the local economy and sustain jobs.
Lindsay Whittle
Plaid Cymru AM South Wales East
It gets worse, I`ve just read the Council has spent £110,000, spying on its own staff. Perhaps some one should tell them that George Orwell`s Animal Farm was an allegorical novel on the abuse of socialism, in Russia under Joseph Stalin, the original Big Brother, not a manual on how to run a Council or a County Borough.
Lindsay,
I note that you did not attend the council meeting that you refer to. In that meeting, I moved the proposal which stated that the changes would be introduced 'as soon as reasonably possible'. This was because the agreement would need to be signed by the many participants, in clear terms so that the agreement was legally valid. The date that this process would be completed was not known on the 17th January, and I said that at the meeting. As soon as it was known, it was reported to the Assistant Auditor in order that it form a part of his public report.
You should also note that the Assistant Auditor states that the rescission of the pay decision in January meant that he decided "not to apply to the court for a declaration"- the actions we took meant that this inevitably costly legal action was not required. Yet your Plaid Leadership voted against the decision.
I would further note that the auditors state in their report that "on two previous occasions (2010 and 2012) the auditors have reported to the council concerns about the need for proper processes to inform decision making". One of these occasions was during your time as Leader of Council. Perhaps you could clarify here the concerns that were raised and what steps you took to resolve them? They weren't as I recall reported to Full Council at the time.
Hefin
see the latest on caerphilly cbc:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2013…
John Owen refers to the £110k spent by Caerphilly council during 2010 – 2012 when Plaid were in control. As keepers of the public purse did the Plaid leadership endorse this surveilance expenditure?
Councillor Pritchard is of course quite correct to ask this question, who actually sanctioned this activity, it is the case that the Council as an employer would have internal, robust, management and supervisory systems in place to deal with thieving staff, fraud, and all other sorts of misfeasance by staff, whilst working for the authority, without resorting to secret and covert surveillance.
My concern is, and the council will have to address this issue, what activity of this sort has the council resorted to in respect to private citizens, if they have ever sought a private security company to undertake covert snooping on private individuals then such activity requires the approval of a magistrates court, and I wonder how many of these such `Warrants` have been applied for by Caerphilly council, what grounds were made in those applications, to a magistrate, i.e. how did they convince a magistrate to issue such a seriously regulated activity, and, who, in the Council, decided which Private Company had the proper credentials to do so.
Until such time that the council issue a statement that no such activity has ever taken place we can only assume. from the response they gave to the Ratepayers Alliance, that the activity does not end at that admission.