can the chair of the parish council be paid for works

Question

Hello,We have a Parish Councillor over the past few years who has been supplying products and doing works for the village council that he is on through his business,is this allowed.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes it is allowed but the awarding of the works would have to minute the pecuniary interest of the councillor and follow due process.  It makes sense that if the council has the opportunity of getting supplies or services at a reduced rate, then they should be able to use this connection.  The only considerations are declaring pecuniary interest, following the council's financial regulations and meeting tendering law in terms of large projects.

Comments

Thank you for your response.
The Issue here is that the gentleman in question seem to get a lot of work through the council that he is Chairman of and not being proposed or seconded and if it's under £500 he gets the job no question which then he puts in for lots of  different Jobs and quotes under £500 but ad them up altogether he's getting paid £1,200.

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To be honest, that is unethical but probably not illegal as most council's financial regulations follow the model and allow for small works to be undertaken without the need to obtain 3 quotes - sometimes it is just not worth the effort to search for 3 quotes for a job that will cost a few hundred pounds.  That said the practice that you have mentioned above is totally unethical and not in the spirit of the law.  All decisions like this must be proposed at the very least and payments approved and it seems that this council is skirting its responsibilities to the financial benefit of the chair on a regular basis.  You might want to have a word with your areas Monitoring Officer.