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Suspended Caerphilly Council bosses could get £1million pay as they await court trial

News | Gareth Hill | Published: 10:35, Thursday June 11th, 2015.
Last updated: 12:08, Thursday June 11th, 2015

Anthony O'Sullivan, Nigel Barnett, and Daniel Perkins
AWAITING TRIAL: Anthony O’Sullivan, Nigel Barnett, and Daniel Perkins

Three chief council officers could receive almost £1milllion in pay while they are suspended facing charges of misconduct in a public office.

Councillors approved a £278,000 fund to pay the officers until August 2016 at a meeting on June 9.

This is on top of the £700,000 given to the officers, who are suspended on full pay, up to January this year.

Caerphilly County Borough Council’s chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan, deputy chief executive Nigel Barnett and head of legal Daniel Perkins will face an internal investigation following the trial.

Council leader Keith Reynolds and head of the investigation committee Cllr Wynne David wrote to the Crime Prosecution Service (CPS) expressing their concern that the criminal trial has been delayed three times.

The trial will now not commence until November 16 at Bristol Crown Court.

The three men each face a single charge of misconduct in a public office between June 25 2012 and October 10 2012.

The decision to charge the men followed a police investigation into a Wales Audit Office report into pay rises awarded to senior council officers.

The charge alleges the defendants “wilfully misconducted themselves in relation to securing Caerphilly County Borough Council’s approval of a remuneration package for the said council’s chief officers from which they stood to gain for themselves”.

At the June 9 meeting interim chief executive Chris Burns’ contract was extended by 12 months.

Councillor Colin Mann, leader of the Plaid Cymru group on Caerphilly County Borough Council, who supported the extension of the contract of the interim chief executive, said: “The cost of the chief officers’ unlawful pay scandal will continue to have a serious financial impact on the council until at least August 2016.

“Another £278,000 is being taken from general reserves to cover the costs of paying the salaries of the three chief officers whose trial will not take place until this November, with internal inquiries to come whatever happens in the court case.

“If this unlawful pay deal had not been pushed through by Labour, millions of pounds would have been available to spend on maintaining frontline services.’’

At the meeting Cllr Keith Reynolds said: “It’s not the position we want to be in, we would have hoped that the matters we are all concerned about would have been dealt with by now.

“There is a consequence to the delay in trial and I quite rightly understand the concerns of members in this chamber and the concerns of the public.”

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