Council dispute bill to cost taxpayers £4.1m

CAERPHILLY A long-running dispute involving pay rises for senior officers at Caerphilly Council will have cost taxpayers £4.1 million by next year. Councillors will be asked to set aside an extra £242,000 to pay for the investigation and the salary of former chief executive Anthony O’sullivan. Mr O’sullivan, together with deputy chief executive Nigel Barnett and head of legal Daniel Perkins, was suspended on full pay in March 2013 following allegations of misconduct after the Assistant Auditor General published a report saying he had been implicated in an unlawful process that led to big pay rises for 20 senior officers at the authority and himself. Mr O’sullivan was the author of a report that recommended his own pay should rise from £132,000 to £158,000. After a public outcry his pay rise was reduced to £5,000. The charges were dropped before trial, with Caerphilly Council agreeing to pay-outs of £171,000 and £127,000 for Mr Barnett and Mr Perkins. But the authority has yet to reach an agreement with Mr O’sullivan, with the head of the investigation estimating that it will take until March 2019 at the earliest to resolve the issue. Council leader David Poole said: “It’s disappointing and hugely frustrating that we are being asked to provide further funding to allow this investigation to reach a conclusion.”