What if a staffing groups gives the go ahead to appoint if it doesn't have powers?

Question

We have a staffing group that recommends staffing to full council for decision making. I was shocked to see we had a new member of staff in the building, since we hadn't yet formally agreed to the appointment. It seems that the staffing group met and gave the go ahead (no minutes available) to speed up the appointment, (although they have no powers to do that) because they didn't want to wait for the council to meet. Is this legally OK, or if not,  can anything be done to report it, and to make sure it doesn't happen again? Most Cllrs are quite indifferent.

Answer 1

You have an Annual Meeting coming up next month. You could consider a motion to replace the members of the staffing group. I'm puzzled by "group" and "no minutes available". Is this body operating in accordance with your standing orders and financial regulations? Was there financial provision for this appointment in the budget? As always, you can report any matters outside the council's policies and procedures to the internal auditor and ask them to highlight this in their audit report, but they may decide not to do so.