KCC tells comms chief to bin PR consultancy

Whistleblower tells KM Group of fears of conflict of interests

The head of Kent County Council’s communications team has been forced to abandon a plan to set up his own public relations firm after an internal inquiry.

Marcus Chrysostomou, who is based at County Hall in Maidstone and is head of external communications, recently launched Honesty Communications, offering services including crisis management, media relations and campaign planning.

Agency

He planned to run the agency with two other county council colleagues while continuing with his County Hall job.

But it emerged the move had led to concerns that the two roles would represent a conflict of interests.

Kent County Counci l launched an investigation into whether there had been a breach of its rules requiring

‘It is clear that specific permission for all these outside commitments had not been given by KCC’

staff to get formal approval for any outside work.

Barely 2 4 hours af t e r announcing that investigation, the authority said that after considering the issue it was clear specific permission had not been given to Mr Chrysostomou to go ahead with the project.

In a statement issued by Amanda Beer, the authority’s corporate director of human resources, the council said: “After having had time to take a further look at this case, it is clear that specific permission for all these outside commitments had not been given by KCC.

“Following further discussion with this employee, all these outside activities have ceased.”

On the agency’s website, Mr Chrysostomou had described himself as an “energetic, demonstrative wild wolf”.

The website also identified KCC account manager Helen Bell and fellow council employee Julian Scott as partners in the agency.

Whistleblower

A county council whistleblower who contacted the KM Group said the move represented a huge conflict of interests.

The whistleblower said: “How would other private PR and marketing companies in Kent react to news they have a new competitor run by people who work full time in senior positions for KCC?”

Mr Chrysostomou told the KM Group at the start of the week that he had sought and received clearance before setting up the agency.

He had also given assurances that he would not be bidding for KCC contracts.

Kent County Council head of communications Marcus Chrysostomou, who was described on his agency’s website as an ‘energetic, demonstrative wild wolf’