The salaries of three suspended Caerphilly County Borough Council bosses will cost the authority almost £700,000, it has been revealed.
A Freedom of Information request by Plaid Cymru shows that council chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan will have received £333,795 by January 5 next year,
Deputy chief executive Nigel Barnett will get £263,453 while head of legal Daniel Perkins will receive £95,601.
The three men are suspended on full pay while they await trail over charges of misconduct in a public office. A provisional trial date has been set for January 5 next year at Bristol Crown Court.
The FOI request also revealed that legal and audit costs relating to the unlawful payment of allowances totalled £92,735 up to May 1 this year.
The amount paid to interim chief executive Stuart Rosser up to May 1 was £80,389 and other “acting up” pay over the same period totalled £31,672.
Councillor Colin Mann, leader of the Plaid Cymru group on Caerphilly County Borough Council, said: “These latest figures show the alarming cost to council tax-payers of the senior officers’ pay debacle.
“The three suspended top officers will have received £700,000 in pay by the time the matter comes to court while the overall total of salaries paid and fees for legal and audit costs will be a staggering £900,000. That does not include the salary of the new proposed interim chief executive.
“On top of that around £1.5m extra will have been paid to 21 senior officers by the time of the next elections in 2017 as a result of the pay deal. What is even worse is that the Labour-run council has consistently refused to review the pay deals with a view to reducing the burden on the residents of the county borough. At the same time they are looking to axe popular services to the public.
“This illustrates that Labour is happy to look after those at the top while the ordinary employee is left to live on very meagre increases in their pay.?”
A spokesman for Caerphilly Council’s ruling Labour group responded: “This is typical mischief-making by an opposition leader desperate to deflect attention away from his own deputy leader’s involvement in Caerphilly Council’s Senior Remuneration Panel’s original decision.
“The nationalists are of course fully aware that Caerphilly council is legally obliged to pay the salaries of the three suspended senior officers.
“It should be noted that in April 2013 the opposition unanimously supported our council’s pay policy, which included the current salaries paid to senior officers.
“Is Cllr Mann seriously suggesting that Caerphilly council should risk costly legal action by refusing to abide by its contractual obligations to the suspended officers?
“Or is this just another example of Colin Mann’s political opportunism and hypocrisy?
“It’s true that legal proceedings are unfortunately taking longer than originally anticipated, so it is understandable there are concerns about mounting costs. But we must allow the proper legal process to run its course.
“Instead of constantly whingeing, it’s about time Plaid Cymru Caerphilly councillors made a constructive contribution to the ongoing debates about the impact of ConDem government cuts.
“Our Labour-led council is working hard to protect the services residents value most.
“The nationalists are nowhere to be seen when it comes to what matters to our communities.”
A spokesman for Caerphilly County Borough Council said: “Three members of staff are currently suspended on full pay and are subject to ongoing legal proceedings.
“The council has taken expert external legal advice and we cannot take any further action at this time whilst the criminal proceedings are ongoing. The Council has to pay salaries in line with the contracts of employment whilst the officers are suspended.
“Unfortunately the legal proceedings are taking much longer than originally anticipated so it is understandable that there are concerns about the mounting costs, but we must allow the proper legal process to run its course.”
And the people of Caerphilly voted this shower into power, why? If people engaged their thinking matter before voting then Labour would never be re elected, just because your parents voted Labour it doesn’t mean you have to.
http://www.wao.gov.uk/system/files/publications/Caerphilly_CBC_Special_Inspection_2013_English.pdf
This has nothing at all to do with which Political Party are in power in Caerphilly Council Paul.
It has to do with dishonesty and deception, if we are to believe the Auditor General for Wales and the Avon Police. Whatever contractual arrangements are arrived at with these people over the years is down to all political groups at one time or another. What surprises me more than anything else is a report recently presented to the council saying that any money claimed by these men, or, overpaid to them will not be worth reclaiming, as it would cost more to collect it from them than the amount itself to reclaim, nonsense of course because they would have to pay the costs of reclamation on top of the money they illegally took. if that is what is judged, next year, happened.
This is everything to do with Labour, they are a Labour council and they are the one’s being charged with misconduct in a public office, it’s Labour who claim to be for the working man, representing the average person in the street whilst awarding themselves huge pay rises then closing leisure centres, hospitals and libraries claiming they can’t afford to keep them open, the people of Caerphilly need to remember these obscene actions when they next vote….well the 2% who can bother themselves to go and vote.
You can`t get away with that comment, Paul, you say “This is everything to do with Labour, they are a Labour council and they
are the one’s being charged with misconduct in a public office”, you are clearly totally incorrect, I am not aware of any Labour person being charged with misconduct in public office if you know something we don`t please share it.
You really do have to correct this statement
Caerphilly council is Labour led, the three facing charges of misconduct in a public office are Labour councillors…no they have not actually been charged as yet but the Labour led Caerphilly Council are still paying out huge amounts of money to these three people whilst making cut backs to services in Caerphilly….this isn’t about Plaid, the Tories or UKIP…this is about a Labour council.
Paul: How can I say this in clear terms,? NO COUNCILLORS OF ANY POLITICAL PARTY HAVE BEEN ACCUSED OF ANY MISDOINGS, FACT!!!!! no Councillors, so far as we know, have been implicated in the actions of the three ” OFFICERS” of the council now accused before the Courts, at least one of whom, was appointed to his high office by Plaid Cymru.
You really do have to check your facts before you make such public, personally damaging, statements, implicating all Caerphilly Labour councilors in these very serious issues of Misconduct in Public Office.
All three of these accused could be members of the Tory Party?, could be Lib Dems, or could represent a witches circle for all we know.
I am presuming that no local Labour Councillors have yet read your comments, otherwise I think you would be called to accont for what you have said.
There are currently no councillors, of any party, that are implicated in the pay scandal, though this may change if the accused council officers enter a plea of ‘not guilty’ and prepare a defence.
In that case the secret remuneration panel was made up of both Labour and Plaid councillors, who presumably reported to their political leaders. The history of this whole mess pre-dates the 2012 election, when Labour took over the running of the council. I await events with interest.
Lord Dafydd Ellis Thomas said recently that Plaid politicians revel in the rivalry and then forget their responsibilities. I think we should put that definition in an a political encyclopedia with Colin’s name in brackets. The following is a link to the auditors report:
http://www.wao.gov.uk/system/files/publications/Caerphilly_CBC_Special_Inspection_2013_English.pdf
The report runs from 2010 when Plaid led the council up until when
Labour took over. It there in black and white, not red and green.
Colin Mann neglects to explain that the pay deal was just part of the misconduct, perhaps he is suggesting Plaid would stop the pay right now and get clobbered with legal costs as illustrated above? Demonstrating again, like parts of the reports do, that Plaid cant run a ……….. I wont go there.
http://www.blackwoodlabour.org.uk
THIS IS IMPORTANT:
Agenda for the meeting and Appendix referred
From: Lynne Hughes-Williams
Caerphilly
11 Jul 2014 — As some of you may be aware, the bases for the parking meetings have been installed at Penallta Parc and Pen Y Fan, that I am aware of to date. Despite the meeting being on the 16 July 2014.
The agenda for the meeting and the appendix referred to therein can be found on the Caerphilly County Borough website.
If you would like me to send copies by e-mail, please send me an e-mail to lhwpersonal@icloud.com.
In the meantime, I am considering the best course of action to deal with the lack of respect that the Council have shown by installing the payment machines ahead of the meeting on Wednesday. I will be demanding an explanation.
My view is that the report writer has made a clear assumption that the Cabinet members will approve the recommendation to proceed with implementing the charges at the meeting despite our objections.
take a look at this:
https://www.assemblywales.org/epetition-list-of-signatories.htm?pet_id=1031
If the case of misconduct in public office is not found by the Court this does not mean they are innocent of making illegal payments. Also the legal threshold is different – the court – beyond reasonable doubt; the employer – on the balance of probabilities. The auditors report should therefore be sufficient to progress disciplinary action for gross misconduct allegations.
Further isn’t there a separate allegation of bringing the authority into disrepute (see Caerphilly Code of Conduct).