Several high profile officers have left East Devon District Council recently. We look forward to details of their payoffs – which it seems are NOT protected by “confidentiality agreements” (gagging clauses) they may or may not have signed:
In a letter earlier this month to Rother’s Leader (Cllr Carl Maynard), Hopkins highlighted a “clear legal requirement” within the Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2011 for authorities to publish certain information on senior remuneration in their annual statement of accounts.
He noted that the secondary legislation set out the separate elements of remuneration that must be published for certain senior staff, and that this included any payments made in connection with the termination of employment.
“Such payments cannot be protected from disclosure by confidentiality agreements,” the minister said. “To be absolutely clear, neither the Code of Local Authority Accounting nor past judgements by the Information Commissioner can override these statutory obligations.”
Hopkins also said that the DCLG had, in light of the approach Rother had taken in its annual statement of accounts, taken the opportunity to look at the local authority’s broader approach to transparency.
This had raised further concerns, the minister suggested in the letter, including that the council did not appear to be following best practice on Localism Act pay policy statements.
“Our guidance states that councils should ensure that pay policy statements are easily accessible to the public as stand alone documents, not hidden in committee papers. Your council does not appear to have followed this guidance,” Hopkins said.
The minister said he was also concerned that the information published on Rother’s website on senior salaries did not meet the requirements of the mandatory Local Government Transparency Code 2014.
“Indeed, I note that your council has stated that it intends to achieve compliance with the Code by April 2015,” Hopkins wrote. “Councils’ statutory obligations under the Code are very clear – the first set of quarterly data had to be published by 31 December 2014 and the first set of annual data had to be published by 2 February 2015.
“It appears from your website that your council has not published data in a number of important areas, for example, contracts over £5,000, land and assets, senior salaries, an organisation chart, trade union facility time, parking revenues, grants to the voluntary sector and the like. This is a significant failing.”
Hopkins said that, in light of this, he had decided to withhold Rother’s new burdens funding for 2014-15 in respect of publishing data in 2014-15 under the Code.
http://localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22297:dclg-to-withhold-funding-from-district-over-transparency-qfailingsq&catid=59&Itemid=27
East Devon Watch 