Three senior bosses at the centre of a pay scandal at Caerphilly County Borough Council have been on paid leave from the local authority after their suspension was secretly brought to an end earlier this year.
It has been widely reported that local authority Chief Executive Anthony O’Sullivan, his deputy Nigel Barnett and the council’s head of legal Daniel Perkins were all suspended from their posts in 2013.
The trio were suspended after they were arrested as part of a police investigation into controversial secret pay rises for around 20 senior managers.
All criminal charges against Mr O’Sullivan were dropped in October last year over a lack of evidence.
However, it can now be revealed the suspensions ended in March this year with the three men going on “Special Paid Leave”.
Caerphilly County Borough Council admitted the move, which was not publicised at the time, after a letter from solicitors acting on behalf of Mr O’Sullivan was made public.
In the letter, addressed to council leader Keith Reynolds, solicitor David Lewis, of firm Richard and Lewis Solicitors, said the council had requested Mr O’Sullivan agree to a period of “special paid leave”, which began in March this year.
Mr Lewis wrote: “Mr O’Sullivan has become increasingly concerned at inappropriate and inaccurate reporting in the press in respect of his current status. The press continue to report as a matter of course that Mr O’Sullivan has been suspended since 2013. This, as you are aware, is not the case.
“As you will recall we brought to your attention in February this year the fact that Mr. O’Sullivan’s continued suspension was both ’unlawful’ and ‘unconstitutional’. You conceded that this was the case and requested that Mr. O’Sullivan agree to a period of ’Special Paid Leave’ until the disciplinary proceedings were concluded. This period of ‘Special Paid Leave’ began in March 2016.
“Mr O’Sullivan agreed to this period of ‘Special Paid Leave’ as he was hopeful of a swift resolution of the disciplinary process. This was based upon the manner in which HHJ Hart had roundly dismissed criminal charges against him at Bristol Crown Court and the comprehensive response that had been prepared to the council’s ‘Schedule of Allegations’ against him. These allegations appeared to have little substance. He was also hopeful of a prompt return to his substantive post to which he remains fully committed.
“At the time you also requested that Mr O’Sullivan did not publicise this change of status and Mr O‘Sullivan has for almost a year honourably observed your request. However, given the length of time matters have dragged and your failure to correct the repeated inaccurate reporting in the press this matter must be revisited.”
The letter, which was sent to the council on December 5, also included a draft press release and threatened its publication if the council failed to circulate it.
It concluded: “As it was the council which originally publicised Mr O’Sullivan’s suspension we believe it appropriate that it is the council which now publicises his change of status. Please find attached a draft press release. We request that you issue this press release, or an agreed amended version, as soon as possible. Should it not be released by Tuesday, December 6, 2016, then we will make it available, together with this letter, to all the usual media outlets.”
https://caerphilly.observer/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/AnthonyOSullivanPressRelease.pdf
The draft press release solicitors wanted published by Caerphilly County Borough Council
Councillor Colin Mann, leader of the opposition Plaid Cymru group on Caerphilly County Borough Council, said: “I was totally unaware of this changed status of Mr Anthony O’Sullivan. I am appalled that the council as a whole was not informed of the change from suspension to special paid leave which happened nine months ago. We have been misled and that is disgraceful.
“We need questions answered: Who agreed the change of status, Why was it agreed and which councillors were aware of that decision? Why was the council as a whole not informed and why was Mr O’Sullivan told not to publicise the change? I also want to know what the status is of the other two officers that were suspended at the same time as Mr O’Sullivan. Are they on special leave as well?
“We cannot wait until the next scheduled meeting of the council and I want a special meeting of the authority called as soon as it is practicable when I will expect full and detailed answers in public to these questions.
“This smacks of a cover-up and the leader of the council has to take responsibility. It is bad enough that millions of pounds of public money has already gone down the drain as a result of this senior officers’ pay scandal under Labour and now this happens. It is totally unacceptable and it is clear that Labour can’t be trusted to run Caerphilly council in an open and transparent manner.”
Blackwood councillor Nigel Dix, who resigned from the Labour Party and group earlier this year, criticised the secrecy of the decision to put the bosses on paid leave.
He said: “This is appalling. Let’s not forget that the original pay awards were kept secret and now we see yet another secret deal.
“The Labour leadership is treating councillors and the public with utter contempt in a vain bid to brush the whole affair under the carpet as we approach the local elections in May.
“It is time that someone takes responsibility, and the buck stops at the leader’s door.”
A spokeswoman for Caerphilly County Borough Council, said: “At its meeting on March 3, 2016, the council’s Investigating and Disciplinary Committee resolved, having received legal advice, that the suspensions of the three statutory officers be converted into special leave.
“This change in status was not a reflection on the merits of the case, but rather a response to a technical time restriction as to the duration of suspensions which is imposed on the council by the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.
“As the process is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to add anything further at this stage.”
Background to the case
Chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan, his deputy Nigel Barnett and head of legal Daniel Perkins were all originally suspended on full pay in 2013 in the wake of a report from the Wales Audit Office into secret pay rises for around 20 council bosses.
The WAO found the decision to award the pay rises was unlawful because Mr O’Sullivan had himself written a report recommending the pay rises and that he was present at a secret meeting that agreed them.
The meeting itself, attended by five councillors, was also unlawfully held because it was not publicised beforehand.
Mr O’Sullivan saw his salary increased from £132,000 to £158,000, although after details of the increase were leaked to the media this was reduced to £5,000.
The WAO report prompted a police investigation and Mr O’Sullivan, Mr Perkins and Mr Barnett were arrested and charged with misconduct in a public office.
In October last year a judge dismissed the case due to a lack of evidence – prompting criticism of the Crown Prosecution Service from local politicians.
Following the collapse of the prosecution, Caerphilly County Borough Council resumed disciplinary proceedings against the trio, which are continuing at huge expense to the local taxpayer.
The people of this borough were yet again deceived, in another secret agreement of March this year. If it were not for Mr. O’Sullivan’s solicitor we would still be unaware of the cosy deal, with the council, to pay on the basis of “special leave.”
Ever since the – again secret – meeting of Labour and Plaid councillors who agreed to make huge salary increases to officers, without telling us nor notifying the public that there was a meeting at all, we have been treated contemptuously.
As we are the ones footing the bill through our taxes I hope that we, the voters, consider this before casting our votes in the 2017 council election.
Caerphilly Council are a disgrace, this whole shambolic saga shows complete disdain for the tax paying residents of Caerphilly, anybody who votes for these clowns at next years local council elections must be stark raving bonkers, they are unfit for public office and must be voted out, they couldn’t run a bath effectively let alone run a county borough council.
Semantics; no more no less, just semantics.
And The Nationalists on the Council; really should wind thier necks in on this issue, the “incedulity” expressed by Colin Mann is completely farsical in that he had at least two of his Nationalist Councillors sitting on the meeting which he said he was “not consulted” on, perhaps he should speak to his own Nationalist Colleagues who were there before going off on one and going overboard in his public protestations.
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Are we going to see this lot into retirement?
That may well be the plan and let us not forget that as well as the wages, more than £6,000 per week, that we are paying we also foot the bill for generous pensions. Every month that this debacle drags on the three suspended or leave takers, it does not matter what terminology is used, accrue additional pension. We are paying the employers share now and will continue to fund pension payments for the rest of their lives.
It certainly is a a very merry Christmas for some people!
That’s pretty much what I figured.
And we’re paying for £142’000 a year to employ an interim chief executive, and I dare say we’re also paying to cover the other posts whilst they laugh all the way to the bank.
This is also true and raises the question about what is to happen if the slow and long winded disciplinary investigation reveals that the three accused are in fact innocent of any breaches of procedure?
If this happens the council will then have to deal with the individuals who are at present covering these posts. This will inevitably mean a handsome severance package, all paid for by us. I predicted, on these pages in 2014, that this mess will go on for a long time and it will surprise me if the total bill is less than £15 Million.
Why are we still paying them …if this was a normal company this would never happen we get the cut backs most people have had housing benefits cut most cant afford to live yet they can award themselves cracking pay increase..do i trust CBC never all corrupt and fraud
Yes you’re right, a normal privately owned business would have dismissed these three characters immediately, but this is the useless public sector , an outdated bloated local authority who answer to nobody and play fast and loose with tax payers cash, this disgusting waste of money will drag on and on costing the residents of Caerphilly millions of pounds, the money could have built a school, a community centre, helped the homeless, regenerated the town centre, car parking charges in Caerphilly could have been reduced, built a few much needed houses, resurfaced some roads……there are so many worthwhile projects that £3 million ( and rising ) could be spent on rather than pouring it into the bank accounts of the Caerphilly three and their highly paid solicitors, it’s enough to make your blood boil.