The long-running farce which saw 32 opposition members of Swansea Council grassed up to the Ombudsman for demanding to debate something in public has finally come to a bizarre conclusion.
Labour and Conservative councillors walked out of a meeting almost two years ago after being told that the costs of a controversial and ill-fated e-government project could not be debated in open session. Lib Dem council leader Chris Holley claimed that the councillors had breached the code of conduct by their action and reported all of them by name to the Ombudsman. Although the local government watchdog initially dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing, Monitoring Officer David Daycock, whose advice had been ignored at the meeting, then followed up with his own detailed complaint. His intervention, allegedly at Holley’s request, prompted a re-think by Ombudsman staff and a lengthy investigation that is said to have cost over £200,000 to the public purse.
Labour and Conservative councillors walked out of a meeting almost two years ago after being told that the costs of a controversial and ill-fated e-government project could not be debated in open session. Lib Dem council leader Chris Holley claimed that the councillors had breached the code of conduct by their action and reported all of them by name to the Ombudsman. Although the local government watchdog initially dismissed any suggestion of wrongdoing, Monitoring Officer David Daycock, whose advice had been ignored at the meeting, then followed up with his own detailed complaint. His intervention, allegedly at Holley’s request, prompted a re-think by Ombudsman staff and a lengthy investigation that is said to have cost over £200,000 to the public purse.
Now the Council has been told that legal opinion has led to the allegation being dismissed on the grounds that DD's guidance at the meeting had been “wrong in law” and could not be considered as “relevant advice."
The opinion by Daycock that exposing details of the contract would lead to action by e-government contractor CapGemini were successfully challenged by a QC employed by the rebel councillors. His view was that the Council had the ability to exercise its own discretion on what could be heard in public and that an incorrect legal basis for excluding non-councillors from the meeting was a breach of the Human Rights Act. The Ombudsman eventually agreed with this view – albeit with a degree of ill-grace - and the investigation has now been dropped.
Whilst the cleared councillors are delighted with the outcome, there is a lot of anger over why the news only emerged after an embargoed press statement by the Ombudsman was published. The other aspect that will rankle with many of them is the suspicious timing of this decision which comes just a few weeks after the Monitoring Officer left the local authority to spend more time with his pension.
4 Comments:
I am told that Mr Daycock was facing an investigation into his professional abilities at Swansea Council. This was still going on when he was given the green light for early retirement. I bet the Ombudsman won't be investigating that particular aspect.
This whole thing was just another episode in a pissing contest between public sector lawyers. These people have got the gall to portrat themselves as working in the public interest every time they attempt to restrict the democratic process. It may sound trite, but I much prefer a council to be run by amateur politicians than non-accountable professionals.
It seems that Mr Daycock won't have to dip too much into his Public Sector pension as I am sure he will be able to survive on his new Public Sector job, see here http://www.mawwfire.gov.uk/documents/fire_authority/auth/2010/10_may/item05_ii_eng.pdf
I feel sure that all will be revealed by our Investigative Journalists at the EP.
The Monitoring job pays 'up to' £16,900.
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