Two senior bosses at the centre of Caerphilly County Borough Council’s pay scandal are to receive a £298,000 pay-off from the local authority.
At a special meeting tonight, Tuesday, October 31, councillors voted that the local authority’s deputy chief executive Nigel Barnett will get £171,00 and that its head of legal services and monitoring officer Dan Perkins will get £127,000.
The pair, together with chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan, were all 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 managers.
The council has been unable to reach a settlement with Mr O’Sullivan. His case has now been referred to a designated independent person who will be appointed by Welsh Government to investigate any disciplinary allegations. It is understood that he wants to come back to work for the council.
Speaking to members during the meeting, interim chief executive Chris Burns explained the council has had to follow a strict procedure laid down by the Local Government (Wales) Standing Orders Regulations and simply could not dismiss any one without due process.
The cost of £298,000 compares to a potential total cost to the council of around £465,000 over the next year if their cases went to a designated independent person for investigation.
A report to councillors stated: “The cost of these settlements is considered to be less than the estimated cost of continuing with the investigation for these two officers.”
In a statement, Caerphilly County Borough Council said: “It was agreed at a meeting of full council this evening that the employment of the Deputy Chief Executive, Mr Nigel Barnett, and the Head of Legal Services, Mr Dan Perkins with the Authority would now end, effective October 31.
“This draws to a close a most difficult period for them, and the council.
“There has been considerable public interest in this uniquely difficult matter and in order to be open and transparent the council wishes to make it known that a financial settlement has been agreed with both officers as compensation for the loss of their employment and on condition that this brings matters to a close.
“In the case of Mr Barnett this payment is for the sum of £171,000 and for Mr Perkins the sum of £127,000. In both cases, this is considered to be much less than would have been the cost of continuing with a disciplinary investigation by a Designated Independent Person which could well have taken a further twelve months.
“The council does not have the ability to deal with cases such as this as it would in other situations because these officers were subject to statutory protection conferred by legislation and the matter could only be dealt with by appointing a Designated Independent Person as required by the relevant law.
“We would like to make clear that they have fully cooperated with the council during a lengthy preliminary investigation. We would particularly like to remind everyone that the criminal charges which had been brought against them, and which have been so heavily publicised, were dismissed by the court and that it would be wrong for any suspicion or stigma attached to that process to remain in anyone’s mind.
“We sincerely wish both of them well for the future.”
As part of the secret pay deal agreed in September 2012, Mr O’Sullivan saw his salary increase from £132,000 to £158,000, although after details of the increase were leaked to the media, the rise 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.
All charges were later dropped over a lack of evidence and the trio’s suspensions were later ended and they were placed on voluntary special leave on full pay.
It was only when the charges were dropped in October 2015 that Caerphilly County Borough Council could restart its disciplinary proceedings against the three.
Including salaries paid out to the three officers while suspended and on leave, legal costs, and the salary of interim chief executives, the pay scandal will have cost the council around £5.25m by the end of the year.
Looks like the nearly forty comments that once graced this page have upset somebody powerful. That’s a good thing.
My mistake! The comments can still be found as this is an update. The original has been relegated to further down the page.
re your comments and a public enquiry…I was hoping Trefor was going to enlighten us, as he obviously knew something was afoot
Who knows, Trefor has been right before…
Well I’m still awaiting…..especially as the acting CEO said last night no investigation can start, until all issues have resolved, and as they have not, perhaps trefor is not right, he’s been wrong before as well….
As I said, who knows. Personally I would welcome a thorough investigation into a council that can squander what will turn out to be more than £10 Million of council tax payers money. particularly since, at the conclusion of this farce, they are all slapping eachother on the back, hail fellows well met, no case to answer, all a dreadful mistake, best of luck for the future old boy.
This is not how we should be conducting local democracy in the 21st century. It more resembles feudalism.
‘Who knows’ well apparently trefor does, but he doesn’t want to tell anyone else who has commissioned the investigation that you would like to see……perhaps he’s got it wrong this time, he has before……
There is no one in Caerphilly Council with any real power – they just have illusions of grandeur
Yes, I for one am outraged by this whole sorry affair, but at the same not surprised at all by the actions of an incompetent council and the utter greed of senior public sector employees. Unfortunately the majority of Caerphilly council tax paying residents are happy with this disgraceful saga, and happy for their council tax bills to rise just to pay for it – and they showed their delight at how their local Labour council have dealt with this matter by voting them back in again.
It would be interesting to know if and how many times in the past they’ve used this method to award themselves a big pay rise ?
But its probably best not to ask – that would involve a further multi million pound investigation !
Maybe Caerphilly Council would like to give all council tax payers a share of a refund totalling the cost of all this farce – at least then we wouldn’t be picking up the bill !
They have the power to waste £10 million of our money, you are right, there will be many more comments on this debacle.
Always the same….As the old song goes “It’s the Rich what gets the pleasure and the Poor what gets the Blame” !!!!
And in this case the bill too!
And the political party who is suppose to be for the working man is too blame, Labour. The biggest con ever.
Why?
Mr O’Sullivan wants his old job back so he can get revenge.
Let’s see what pay raise is in store soon for the big fat cats in the council.