Tory councillor quizzed on Kennet pay-off scandal

8.26.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 21st May 2010

WC leader Jane Scott was forced to answer questions from councillors on the "non-pensionable Honorarium" payments to top officers on the old Kennet District Council, following revelations about the pay-offs in Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs column.

Marlborough councillor Nick Fogg asked if the council was going to do anything to get the money paid out returned to the taxpayer.

In reply Scott claimed there was no "direct evidence" of wrongdoing, but that attempts were being made to reclaim excessive payments.

A report to Wiltshire Council's Audit Committee on December 9th referred to pay-offs given to senior staff members at Kennet District Council in the run-up to the council's abolition. An update went to the meeting of the Audit Committee in March, the contents of which are being kept strictly secret by the council. The council's solicitor has refused to permit the disclosure of any details of the scandal to the public, because it would cause very serious embarrassment to senior councillors and officers who may have been involved in both the original errors and the costly attempts to make sure nobody found out about them.

However the information below is in the public domain, having been extracted from the agenda for the public part of the December meeting.

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Purpose of Report

1. To advise the Committee of the findings of an independent audit report of nonpensionable honorarium payments made to some employees of the former Kennet District Council.

Background

2. As part of the monitoring of the relevant decisions of the five councils in the period of transition to one Council the Monitoring Officer and the s151 Officer of Wiltshire Council referred to the Chief Executive of Wiltshire Council honorarium payments made to some former employees of Kennet District Council. In order to ensure transparency and accountability, he agreed that the Council's external auditors, KPMG, should be commissioned to carry out an independent audit of the nonpensionable honorarium payments. A copy of the executive summary of their report is circulated as a secret document.

Main Considerations for the Council

3. The audit report concludes that the payments were made under appropriate authority but the approach followed by the Council in determining how non-pensionable honorarium payments should be made, and to whom, lacked objectivity and transparency and was insufficiently documented. The report, however, stressed that no direct evidence of deceitful or illicit behaviour was uncovered during the audit.

4. Wiltshire Council is required to satisfy itself as to the validity of the payments included within the audit. Counsel's advice is therefore being sought on the legality of these payments in order to determine whether any recovery action is appropriate.

5. Although the circumstances described in the audit report arose in a predecessor authority, the auditors have provided a number of recommendations, based on good practice, to be implemented in relation to Wiltshire Council's policy on nonpensionable honoraria. These recommendations have been accepted as shown in the Action Plan appended to this report and will be implemented alongside the recommendations made by KPMG and incorporated in another report presented to this committee (The "Five Councils" report). Review of the policy will need to take account of pay harmonisation and TUPE requirements.

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Although Liberal Democrat members of Wiltshire Council's Audit Committee opposed closing the doors on the press and public when the committee discussed pay-offs made to officers on the former Kennet District Council, the Conservatives and Independent voted for secrecy.

A motion to put out a neutered press release explaining how the scandal was created but without naming names or compromising possible future legal action was defeated on the vote of committee chairman Roy While (Con). So the facts must remain secret, and members of the public will have to read between the lines to work out what really happened to their money in Kennet.