Sacked council chief disreputable, says AM
AN ASSEMBLY Member has branded sacked Caerphilly council chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan as “disreputable” and “dishonest” during First Minister’s Questions in the Senedd.
Hefin David, the Labour AM for Caerphilly, was welcoming the Welsh Government’s decision to review the process for disciplining council chief executives following the seven-yearlong senior officers’ pay scandal, which culminated in Mr O’Sullivan’s dismissal last week.
The former Caerphilly chief executive was on gardening leave with full pay for six and a half years after he was deemed by the Assistant Auditor General for Wales to have acted unlawfully when recommending himself for a secret salary increase of £26,000.
The process took as long as it did partly because of a legal requirement in Wales to appoint an independent expert to investigate allegations of misconduct against local government chief executives.
Housing and Local Government Minister Julie James has now announced a review of the disciplinary arrangements. In a written statement she said: “Events in Caerphilly council during the past six years have led to fresh calls for a review of these arrangements, with local citizens and both local and national media raising a number of concerns about the impact of the protracted process.
“I have asked Peter Oldham QC, supported by Junior Counsel, to undertake a rapid review of these arrangements which will include a comparison of the arrangements in Wales with those in other parts of the UK and consideration of whether changes should be recommended for Wales; the extent to which the current arrangements achieve the right balance between protecting officers from summary dismissal – for being the bearers of unwelcome political news – and the speed with which processes are conducted and concluded; to identify improvements / alternatives – if any – to the current system which maintains the dual purpose of the current arrangements.”
Raising the matter in First Minister’s Questions, Mr David said: “Disreputable, dishonest and should have been dismissed long ago – these are the views of Caerphilly residents about Anthony O’Sullivan, the disgraced and now finally dismissed chief executive of Caerphilly County Borough Council.
“He was sacked last week after being found by the whole council guilty of gross misconduct.
“There were concerns raised about the way he was appointed by the then-Plaid Cymru-led authority back in 2010, when the post wasn’t advertised to external competition. That rule was changed in 2014 by the Labour Welsh Government.
“Will the First Minister give his commitment today that the Oldham review will consider all aspects of recruitment and disciplinary practices for senior officers, and ensure that the misery that has been inflicted on the Caerphilly county borough for the past seven years cannot be repeated?”
Mr Drakeford responded: “I look forward to the work that Peter Oldham QC will now carry out. I want to make sure that the whole process that was previously agreed on the floor of this Assembly is thoroughly reviewed.
“I want him to look at the way in which those rules have been implemented on the ground, in case there are flaws of implementation as well as any difficulties in the rule book itself. And I look forward to us being able to come back to the Assembly as rapidly as we are able to, in order to ensure that the events that have unfolded in Caerphilly will not be repeated elsewhere.”