Council’s whistleblowing policy isn’t working, say auditors

Martin Shipton

A council’s handling of whistleblowing cases has been strongly criticised by its own auditors.

Powys County Council recently reported to the Ombudsman a councillor who spoke to Nation.Cymru in support of a whistleblower who revealed wrongdoing by a headteacher. Bizarrely, the council claimed that by raising his concerns in public, Plaid Cymru group leader Elwyn Vaughan had brought it into disrepute.

Now, Cllr Vaughan says he and the whistleblower have been vindicated after SWAP Internal Audit Services, which audits the council’s accounts, has produced a report that trashes Powys’ whistleblowing policies.

In 2023 Nation.Cymru revealed how Nick Ratcliffe, head of a PRU (pupil referral unit) at Newtown, made irregular payments with taxpayers’ money for a barn he was converting into Airbnb accommodation.

A whistleblower who reported the matter was initially told by the authority’s head of legal services, Clive Pinney, that there was no evidence of any irregularities. It was only when the whistleblower contacted Audit Wales that any action was taken.

Amazon account

The whistleblower was also present when another senior council official instructed an administrative worker in the unit to delete the school’s Amazon account, thus eliminating evidence of the unauthorised purchases. Unknown to the senior official, another administrator had copied details of the transactions, so the relevant information was retrievable.

Now a report by SWAP Internal Audit Services has exposed the serious flaws in Powys County Council’s treatment of whistleblowers.

The report says the audit objective is to “ensure that there are reasonable controls in place to manage and monitor whistleblowing disclosures.”

It states: “More detail needs to be included within the whistleblowing policy to provide better guidance to officers of the actions that can be taken to ensure investigations are undertaken efficiently. The information within the policy does not fully align with the council’s constitution.

“Due to the lack of detailed guidance available, there is an inconsistent approach to recording and investigating whistleblowing allegations.

“There is currently no training available for whistleblowing; however it was stated by the HR team that a new training programme would be implemented in September 2022. The lack of training opportunities means it is uncertain whether all officers have the ability and knowledge to fulfil the requirements of the council when reporting and investigating a whistleblowing allegation.”

Records

On administration and the keeping of records, the report states: “There is a record of whistleblowing allegations made; however there are gaps in the information recorded. Ongoing investigations undertaken in-house are stored locally by the services that are undertaking the investigations.

Senior managers may be updated on the progress and outcomes, however there is a lack of visibility over this process. The council should ensure there is an easily accessible solution that can record all allegations made, all information is stored and the records on the audit trail and outcomes exist.

The council does not keep an organised record of whistleblowing allegations. The lack of a central storage solution could result in allegations not being recorded or investigated by the relevant officers.”

In terms of governance, the report says: “Reports of the number of whistleblowing disclosures were not reported in line with the council’s constitution before December 2023. There has been improvement since then, and the number of allegations was reported to the governance and audit committee in February 2023.”

Investigations

On the conduct of investigations arising from whistleblowing, the report says: “There are no guidelines for officers to follow to ensure that there is a consistent process for undertaking investigations. How to investigate, and who should be involved is decided on a case-by-case basis by the officers involved.

“If an officer receives an allegation, it should be reported to the monitoring officer. There are many ways an allegation could be made to the council, with multiple officers who can receive it, before an investigation will happen.

It was stated by the monitoring officer that there was a previous case where a member of the public claimed that they had made an allegation which was ignored. Although Powys won the court case regarding this, it identifies that there may be issues with the current system.

“Reports of potential fraud are not investigated, leading to a loss of reputation or financial damage for the council.

“Officers involved in the investigations rely on their previous experiences to fulfil their responsibilities. This does not enable the council to have a consistent approach to investigations.

“It was stated by the monitoring officer that he holds a record of allegations made to the authority. The record is updated when he receives a notification from the officer who is dealing with the case; however, if the investigation officer does not pass on any updates or reports it in the first instance, it will not be recorded. It was stated that although there is a record, it is not up to date with the outcomes of the investigations. Evidence was seen that there is a record; however it is not up to date and contained gaps in the information.

“The officer in charge of an ongoing investigation stated that the files were stored locally on the services system, with updates being given to the head of services and monitoring officer. The method used to record the allegations should have a clear audit trail from start to end.”

Cllr Vaughan said: “This critical report on Powys’ whistleblowing policy all stacks up, proving what we’ve said is true.”