chairman and clerk misled auditor and clerk broke NDA

Question

Afternoon Everyone

Am new here but so glad I have found you all. The chair of our council and the clerk have deliberately misled the auditor this year, and last year the auditor helped cover up gross wrong doings which according to our clerk, would have landed the council in high court! What can I do about this? It is common knowledge amongst councillors, but the clerk has them all running scared with threat of tribunal, and is practically running council single handed, making decision above her delegated orders, even overturning council decisions to what the clerk wants!

I am new to council this year, and admittedly still have much to learn, but I have challenged certain decisions and stood up to these people, but the vitriol that is coming my way has me on the verge of resigning, which I don't really want to do as I would dearly love to serve my community. But if I knew it to be like this, I would never have done it. Plus our monitoring officer never answers the phone or replies to emails.... what do I have left to do, any advice would be gratefully received.

Thank you, Bonny

Answer 1

You have an opportunity each year to voice your concerns to the external auditor, but that period will have passed now. There is a fundamental weakness in the system for appointing internal auditors, as no relevant qualification is required and many auditors are far too close to the clerk and/or chair to carry out a meaningful examination of the council's finances, policies and procedures. The issues you have raised aren't really monitoring officer territory, as the MO has no role in relation to audits or clerks, so can only address matters relating to the conduct of members of the council. Addressing your concerns regarding the performance of the clerk will require the support of at least half of the members of the council and this is often difficult to achieve.

I'm sorry to sound so negative, but your experiences are not unusual and there are no easy answers. There is nothing to prevent you from discussing your concerns with the internal auditor, but don't expect your clerk and fellow councillors to thank you if you choose this option.

Comments

Thank you Dave the clerk, it really is a sorry state of affairs. I am not on council to be popular, I am a strong believer things should be done correctly. Your suggestion about speaking with other councillors may be an option and over half are not happy, but that will depend on whether they will make a stand or not. It the few making it awful for the rest and for the parish. Someone has said council is dysfunctional beyond belief and needs shutting down and a fresh start. I feel this is a little extreme.
There were some that requested to speak with the external auditor, but they were told by the clerk, it was not allowed, when they knew it was. They are even making it hard to make a complaint internally as the personnel/hr Councillor is also complicit with the chair and clerk. It is an utter mess.

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There was also a NDA to do with the old clerk, how they were badly treated, I know what it was and some of the details, which my understanding I should not know at all. Do I have a duty to report this?

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Bonny  Can I suggest  that you  join https://townandparishcouncillors.co.uk/.   They are a group of similarly disaffected Cllrs , ex Cllrs who have encountered abuse in their Councils .  There is no doubt that there is a groundswell of opinion that change is needed but because  the present total lack of enforcement of accountability many good Cllrs are walking away in disgust .  That's a shame .  The organisation above (CIVIC) currently acts mainly  in a supportive role as it has realised that meaningful change is a long way away and until then change has to come from within.   In my opinion the Jackie Weaver syndrome has bred a whole new generation of clerks who are assuming a position in many Councils which is way beyond that which was intended.   What is needed is a complete revision of the LGA 1972 Act but as an insider said that's at least 15 years away

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Was the imposition of an NDA a decision of a court or drafted by a solicitor? If not, it's unenforceable.

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Thank you Terminator, this sounds like something I could really use at the moment, I will be along shortly.

Dave the clerk, I believe it was done through a solicitor, though not entirely sure. Considering how else things are done, maybe not!

Thank you for all you help and advice

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I'm assuming that the NDA was signed by the old clerk in exchange for some sort of payout. This would most likely by a unilateral NDA rather than a mutual one. So the clerk agrees not to reveal any details but there would be nothing to stop the council from revealing the details if they wanted, especially internally.

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I'm astonished and appalled at the number of councils that think they can dispose of a Clerk by wasting a lump of public money then trying to cover it up with what they think is a legal NDA. If you go down this route, how do you cover up the expenditure in your published accounts? One of my neighbouring Councils paid a Clerk who had only been with them for a couple of years over £25k to go away, then refused to answer questions about the expenditure as this would breach their own NDA!

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I am disgusted too, this happened before I was on council. And it is exactly as you say, now they won't say where the money has gone, and there are a set of minutes 'missing' too. But I do know the clerk was not at fault in any way. The more time passes and I learn more of what has been going on, I am more and more exasperated. I don't want to walk away, as then things will stay the same, although after reading the website terminator suggested, I just feel so sad that no one cares, and the few that do and want to do good for their communities are bullied out by other councillors. I think in a large part because there is not really any deterrent for bad behaviour.

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Minutes can't go missing. There will be paper copies, digital copies on the computer on which they were recorded and email copies to everybody who receives them. Even deleted emails are probably still sitting on the servers.

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Well, I hope they are somewhere then. But all we are told is, it was a confidential session, but is it not a legal requirement for the minutes to be published? It's all very odd. I just don't know what to do.

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The minutes of confidential items must still be published. There must be a permanent public record of the decisions, even though the details of the discussion are confidential.