Secret payoff to Welsh council chief executive of more than £200k
Martin Shipton
A council chief executive who has not been at work for 11 months after falling out with the authority’s political leader is to receive severance pay totalling £209,000 following a secret decision made by councillors.
Members of Caerphilly County Borough Council chose to make the payment to chief executive Christina Harrhy rather than go through a tortuous process to get rid of her that could have cost £520,000.
Councillors decided on the “cheaper” option at a meeting behind closed doors on Monday evening, voting by 43 votes to 14 with five abstentions to authorise the £209k payoff to Ms Harrhy.
Reported
All councillors were told at the meeting that if they spoke to the media about the deal they would be reported to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales for breaching the local government code of conduct.
Such a finding would be likely to lead to their being suspended for months.
There has been talk within council circles for many months that she fell out with the authority’s Labour leader Sean Morgan over the appointment of a senior officer. It is understood that allegations of bullying followed, but that an investigation carried out by the Local Government Association exonerated Cllr Morgan.
Nation.Cymru has been told that he declared an interest and did not participate in Monday evening’s meeting.
‘Special leave’
During her absence on “special leave” from the council, it is known that Ms Harrhy applied to be the chief fire officer at South Wales Fire and Rescue Service. She got to a short list of two, but failed to be appointed.
Because she was on special leave rather than sick leave, Ms Harrhy was entitled to full pay. In the 2022-23 financial year her salary was £148,773, along with pension contributions of £28,640, making a total of £177,413. In 2023-24 her salary rose to £153,111.
In August, a spokesman for Caerphilly council told us: “We are aware of recent media coverage and posts circulating on social media, but all we can say is that the chief executive is not in work at present and, as we have a duty of care to maintain confidentiality in regard to this matter, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”
Independent investigator
Under an arrangement that applies to local authorities in Wales but not in England, councils that want to discipline their chief executive have to appoint an independent investigator to carry out an exhaustive inquiry. Experience has shown that this is much more expensive than an in-house investigation of the kind that would apply to all other council employees.
Caerphilly council was previously at the centre of a notorious senior officers’ pay scandal that cost taxpayers millions of pounds. Its previous chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan was paid more than £1m from the public purse in pay and pensions from his first suspension in March 2013 until his sacking in October 2019.
Mr O’Sullivan was suspended after the Assistant Auditor General for Wales said he had acted unlawfully when recommending himself for a secret salary increase of £26,000 in 2012, to £158,000 a year. In total 21 senior officers would have received pay rises at a time most staff had their pay frozen.
Mr O’Sullivan and two other senior council officers later faced criminal charges of misconduct in a public office, which were dismissed by a judge at Bristol Crown Court in late 2015 on the grounds that “what at worst the defendants … were endeavouring to achieve, unattractive though it may have been, was avoiding public scrutiny of new remuneration levels”.
Dismissed
Later Mr O’Sullivan’s status was changed from being suspended to being on special leave. He was eventually dismissed on the basis of an independent report for Caerphilly council which concluded he had been “grossly negligent (if not reckless)” and had “wilfully breached his contract”.
However, he lodged a claim against the council at an employment tribunal. The case was settled by negotiation, with Mr O’Sullivan getting a final pay-off of £110,700. The decision to settle was made after the council was advised it would potentially have bills totalling £500,000 if it lost.
The cost to the authority rocketed because of the need to have an independent investigator.
Speaking on an unattributable basis about the payoff for Ms Harrhy, one councillor said: “This is another terrible day for Caerphilly council. We were given two terrible options.
“After the senior officers’ pay fiasco, there was talk that the Welsh Government would change the rules so there was no need to use an independent investigator when disciplining a chief executive, but nothing came of that.”
A secret report disclosed to councillors on Monday evening said respect for Ms Harrhy’s leadership skills was “low” among councillors and senior officers.
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All in house industrial hearings are generally of a low standard and are manipulated to suit the company or the authority. They are in fact institutionalised bullying with the possible exception where a court case resulting in a conviction precedes the hearing. In that case the hearing is more of a formality.
It’s no wonder things are so broken. How many people’s council tax has gone to pay this public servant?
Councillors don’t half know how to chuck our money around!! Who decides these amounts? This woman had already been paid full wages for not turning up for work for approximately a year. She will probably get a pension as well at our cost. We need to put a stop to this blatant extravagance that exists within councils. Don’t forget, these people work for us not the other way around!!
This behind closed doors behaviour is unacceptable in a democracy. These large payouts are immoral coming from council tax paid by people who earn a fraction of that earned by the chief executive. Shame on the councillors who voted for the payout.
Was the leader Sean Morgan in that meeting, as he was deemed to be one of the issues in this saga.
Agreed Contractual pay off or NDA pay off to avoid airing dirty linen in public.?
This should be investigated. According to news reports this person has been off work for 11 months on full pay (approx. £150,000) for no apparent reason and then they “secretly” bung her another £200,000 and probably a hefty pension. Why “secretly”? What’s going on and more importantly why are these alleged cash-strapped councils spending our money as if it’s going out if fashion?
It is absolutely scandalous yhat
She Should Have been Sacked. While off sick she was applying for other jobs and attending interviews, That’s de-fraud of the company sick pay scheme are the administers of the scheme aware of her actions
A number of worrying issues here that every council tax payer should be worried about. First we have a decision to reach a large remuneration payoff to the council CEO of a quarter of a million pounds! Secondly we have allegations of bullying being swept under the carpet? Third said complainant is on the short list for another highly paid public office whilst receiving full pay whilst on “special sick leave” ? You are either on sick leave or you are fit to work? This is another example of the failure of the Sennedd to reduce these freedoms as promised… Read more »
The haunting fact of this is a FOIA request from members of the public can get them, salary rate of all department heads and of the leadership. It can also get the councils rules on sick leave and while on “special” leave. The fact so many commenters on here, don’t know their rights is scary. You have the right to attend public meetings. You have the power of the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT, to check up on what the council are doing in your name. And finally you have the right to PROTEST the councils decisions, with potions, signage or… Read more »
This is a prime example why the number of councils in Wales should be reduced
They are all in a close proximity they all duplicate the same services and have huge overheads with chief executives manager’s with inflated salaries and pensions it’s a complete waste of public money .
There is more money wasted on over Administration than is spent on public services
This is including the waste of time Senedd
When are the people of Wales going to come to their Senses.
There was lots of noise years ago about attracting the top quality people to the top jobs they needed to be paid above and beyond a normal salary to retain them, obviously not this is turning in to a farce, this must be another case of sacking through promotion and employing staff that are out of their depth within their own department.