Pay to be published after investigation
Extra transparency is welcome
A local enterprise partnership has pledged to publish the pay of its chairman and the expenses accrued by its board members, a month after an investigation by The Yorkshire Post raised questions about its governance.
A YORKSHIRE local enterprise partnership has pledged to publish the pay of its chairman and the expenses accrued by its board members, a month after an investigation by The Yorkshire Post raised questions about its governance arrangements.
The Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Board says new measures “put it well ahead of government best practice guidance on local enterprise partnership transparency and accountability”.
Its board members will be subject to a new code of conduct covering applications for grants or loans, contracting for work or services and canvassing for appointments.
The remuneration of the nonexecutive LEP chairman Roger Marsh, and any expenses for board members undertaking duties on behalf of the organisation, will be reported every year at public meetings of the board.
Last month, The Yorkshire Post revealed that Mr Marsh was being paid £60,000 a year for working up to 12 days a month, without details of the financial arrangement being publicly disclosed.
He has been receiving an annual fee for being chairman since he took up the position in 2013. But the arrangements, which included a subsequent increase, were not published in board minutes or annual accounts.
Mr Marsh’s pay was one of the issues highlighted in an investigation which raised a number of concerns about the LEP and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, the body accountable for all of its spending decisions.
These include the level of spending on highly paid whitecollar jobs which contributed to a recent abrupt recruitment freeze when senior officials realised they were grappling with a pending £4m budget shortfall.
There were also questions about how WYCA, which is responsible for economic development, transport and planning for devolution, spent more than £750,000 on networking events, much of it in the south of France.
The LEP, which is responsible for stimulating economic growth in West Yorkshire and several neighbouring areas, said it had made numerous changes to its governance processes in the last six months in the interests of transparency. These include holding all meetings in public, publishing reports and minutes on the combined authority website and publishing details of grants awarded to businesses in the Leeds City Region.
Mr Marsh said: “We have always recognised the importance of public accountability which is why we were already ahead of other local enterprise partnerships in terms of best practice and I am pleased we have now agreed to go even further.
“As the LEP responsible for £1.2bn of taxpayer investment through the country’s largest Growth Deal, it is only right that we should be the most transparent local enterprise partnership in the country as well.”
The disclosures made by The
Yorkshire Post were discussed at a meeting of the combined authority’s overview and scrutiny committee earlier this month. Committee chairman Robert Light said when the LEP was set up it “didn’t have the level of governance and processes that was normally expected when you are dealing with public money”. He said: “That was a deliberate decision of the Government at the time.”
Coun Light added: “We have done a lot of work looking at the different processes and what has changed over the last five years. We are reasonably assured that the processes now in place are significantly stronger than they were five years ago.”
We have recognised the importance of public accountability. Roger Marsh, chairman of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership board.
A FEW weeks after an investigation by The Yorkshire Post highlighted concerns about the governance arrangements of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, it is heartening to hear that greater levels of transparency are to be introduced.
The Leeds City Region Partnership had previously not publicly disclosed details of the fact that its non-executive chairman Roger Marsh was being paid £60,000 a year for working for the authority up to 12 days a month, prior to the publication of a story in this newspaper.
However, the organisation, which is responsible for stimulating economic growth in the Leeds City Region area and is responsible for £1.2bn worth of taxpayer investment in West Yorkshire, has now pledged to publish the pay of its chairman and the expenses accrued by its board members on an annual basis at public meetings of the board.
This is an important and welcome step forward that will provide greater confidence in the accountability of a partnership that is reliant on public money. It comes after further recent changes which have included holding all meetings in public, publishing reports and minutes from its meetings on the Combined Authority website and publishing details of grants awarded to businesses in Leeds City Region.
The Yorkshire Post and the LEP share the same ambition for the region; creating a prosperous and productive economy that fulfils its potential as a place to live and work.
By introducing these accountability measures, the LEP’s board says it will now be “well ahead of government best practice guidance” for such organisations.
Work to improve the transparency of the organisation is by no means finished, but this is undoubtedly a step in the right direction.