Council nearing end of search for new £156,000 chief executive

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

Decision day is nearing as a new chief executive of Caerphilly County Borough Council is set to be appointed.

The local authority has been without a permanent boss since early October, when Christina Harrhy left the post after a long absence.

Deputy chief executive Dave Street has carried out the chief executive’s duties on an interim basis in the months since.

Caerphilly Council’s appointments committee met behind closed doors, on Monday January 20, to shortlist candidates for the full-time post.

‘Forward thinking’

A salary of £156,939 has been offered to the successful candidate, who according to the job advert published last November should be a “forward-thinking strategic leader” with “experience of senior management and leadership at a corporate level”.

The appointments committee is expected to reconvene on Friday January 24 to begin interviews of the shortlisted candidates.

The council will hope the appointment of Ms Harrhy’s successor brings to a close a tumultuous few months in which its handling of her departure drew criticism.

At a private meeting in early October, councillors were ordered to keep quiet about the details of an agreed settlement for the outgoing chief executive – which was later widely reported to be £209,000.

The local authority’s leader, Cllr Sean Morgan, then referred himself to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales over “correspondence with a resident”, reportedly relating to that settlement.

At the time, a council spokesperson said Cllr Morgan had referred himself “in the interests of transparency”.

The debate over the settlement also escalated to the Senedd, where Caerphilly’s Labour MS, Hefin David, said the council had done “the right thing” in negotiating a deal – claiming the alternative could have proven far costlier.

But in a later parliamentary session, Natasha Asghar, a Conservative MS for the South Wales East region, said she was “appalled” arrangements had been made “behind closed doors”, and called for councils to be “as open and transparent as possible with the people they serve”.

Audit Wales, the nation’s public spending watchdog, also confirmed in the autumn it would scrutinise the deal as part of its examinations of the council’s accounts for the current financial year.

Adrian Crompton, the auditor general for Wales, added at the time his team would seek “to understand the rationale supporting the payment and whether there is a need for any further work at this stage”.