SACKED PAY SCANDAL COUNCIL BOSS ‘NOT SORRY’:
AN UNREPENTANT council chief who was off work on full pay for more than six years has said he has “nothing to apologise for” after finally being sacked.
And the scandal looks set to drag on after he vowed to appeal against the decision at an employment tribunal.
Former Caerphilly Council chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan was suspended with full pay in March 2013, following allegations he engineered a pay increase for himself along with two other senior officers.
Since then he has continued to receive his full £137,000-a-year salary despite not having to turn up for work.
Mr O’Sullivan was dismissed “without notice for gross misconduct” by councillors at a meeting on Thursday night.
After a four-and-a-half-hour meeting held in private, interim council leader Councillor Barbara Jones said a decision was made to “dismiss Mr O’Sullivan with immediate effect”.
The report that was discussed by councillors described his behaviour as “grossly negligent (if not reckless)” and said he “wilfully breached his contract”.
But Mr O’Sullivan said after the meeting that the “matter is far from concluded” and that he has “nothing to apologise to people in Caerphilly for”.
He told the BBC he will now be appealing against the decision at an employment tribunal.
Speaking late on Thursday night, Mr O’Sullivan said: “What I would say to the people of Caerphilly now is wait until the employment tribunal takes place in public, wait until the full facts emerge in the public domain. Then make a reasoned decision.
“The decision they’ve made this evening, clearly on political ground, will have very, very serious repercussions on local government across Wales. This matter is far from concluded.”
He told the BBC his sacking was a “travesty” and that there had been a “vicious media campaign” against him.
A spokesman for the council said: “Councillors dismissed Mr O’Sullivan after carefully considering all the evidence presented by both parties as part of this complex and thorough investigation.
“Serious allegations of gross misconduct have been proven and therefore the right decision has been made. The council has fully abided by its statutory requirements when investigating senior officers at this level, including the appointment of a designated independent person (DIP) to undertake a detailed investigation at arm’s length from the authority. We will vigorously defend the decision of council and we remain confident in our position on this matter.”
Mr O’Sullivan had wanted the meeting to be held in open session, but councillors decided it would be inappropriate to do so.
In a statement, Cllr Jones said the council regretted “the amount of time and money that has been spent on this matter”.
Since his suspension six and a half years ago, Mr O’Sullivan has received nearly £900,000 in salary payments.
Taking into account legal costs and payouts to the two other officers involved in the case, the cost to the taxpayer has been estimated at between £4m and £6m.
Mr O’Sullivan was initially suspended from his role in March 2013 after police said they would investigate complaints about pay rises awarded to senior officers at the council.
He was later found to have acted “unlawfully”, in the words of the district auditor, through his actions in trying to engineer a pay rise for himself from £132,000 to £158,000 a year.
Details of the pay rises were leaked to the media, and after a public outcry, Mr O’Sullivan’s pay rise was reduced to £5,000. His suspension was later changed to “special leave”.
In 2014, Mr O’Sullivan, deputy chief executive Nigel Barnett and head of legal services Daniel Perkins were charged with the criminal offence of misconduct in a public office, but a judge later dismissed the charges.
Mr Barnett and Mr Perkins both received severance packages of £171,000 and £127,000 respectively from the council in October 2017, but Mr O’Sullivan remained on gardening leave.
Last year, Caerphilly Council appointed a designated independent person (DIP) charged with compiling a report recommending what action the authority should take against Mr O’Sullivan.
That report, which was presented to councillors two days ago, described Mr O’Sullivan’s conduct as “grossly
negligent” and recommended his dismissal.
It read: “The chief executive deliberately and wilfully breached his contract; the code of conduct was incorporated into his contract of employment.
“The chief executive in his oral evidence made it clear that he paid no regard to the code and its provisions as he operated according to his own ‘higher’ code.
“Also, his approach to governance issues, particularly in relation to his own pay and remuneration, appears to me to be grossly negligent (if not reckless), as was his approach to the information given to [the council] in reports.
“In light of this, the DIP recommended that the chief executive is dismissed without notice for gross misconduct.”
In a statement issued at the conclusion of Thursday’s meeting, Cllr Jones said: “A special meeting of council was held this evening to determine the outcome of disciplinary proceedings against the chief executive.
“Councillors have carefully considered the findings of the investigation – and the subsequent appeal – and a decision has been made to dismiss Mr O’Sullivan with immediate effect.
“We regret the amount of time and money that has been spent on this matter, but we had no choice other than to follow the agreed statutory process.
“It should also be noted that during this time we had to allow criminal investigations to proceed, which added almost two and a half years to the overall timeframe.
“This decision concludes a very difficult chapter for the council and we must now move forward.
“Our focus remains on delivering highquality services to our residents and meeting the needs and aspirations of our communities in future.”
As reported in yesterday’s paper, moves to change the law on investigating alleged misconduct by senior local government officers will get under way within days.
One of the factors that has prolonged the scandal for so long is a law obliging Welsh councils to follow a complicated disciplinary process involving an external investigator before they can dismiss a chief executive.
Caerphilly Labour AM Hefin David has tabled a question to First Minister Mark Drakeford, asking him to make a statement on the disciplinary process for senior officers in local government in Tuesday’s plenary session at the Senedd.