‘No scrutiny’ of plan that gave senior City council staff £1m pay-out …

This has left questions to be answered by West Dunbartonshire Council who saw senior staff retire on “golden goodbyes” after it was revealed they had been wining and dining and playing golf with a contractor.

Former Council CEO Joyce White, the Council HQ and Cllr Jim Bollan.

Cllr Jim Bollan, who had raised the matter was sanctioned after being reported to the Standards Authority to which he was reported after the then Chief Executive Joyce White shut him down at a council meeting for asking too many questions about the allegations.

The Accounts Commission said the Glasgow City proposals appeared to have been approved by some of the individuals who directly benefited.

The five senior staff who left the council between 2021 and 2024 included former chief executive Annemarie O’Donnell.

The regulator said the actions of the senior staff “fell short of the values and principles every public sector worker and councillor are expected to follow”.

One of the police team who investigated the wine and double helpings at Cameron House Hotel and city restaurants said he was astonished at how slack the procedures were in Dumbarton.

While a spokesman for Glasgow City Council said action had already been taken to improve scrutiny, West Dunbartonshire Council also banned The Democrat editor who had been making inquiries from speaking to its press officers and demanded he go through the lengthy and circuitous route of a Freedom of Information request if he wanted to pursue the matter further.

Police Scotland told the BBC that they had carried out extensive inquiries into the situation in Glasgow following a report, but no criminality has been established.

The pay-outs came as the city council grappled with ongoing budget cuts and savings in attempts to save money.

In 2021, Ms O’Donnell and other senior officials approved a senior management “restructure” following a report by Robert Anderson, who was at that time the council’s head of HR.

A similar restructure is now taking place at West Dunbartonshire and there was a UNITE meeting on Tuesday of staff in the social care section where morale is at an all time low, particularly in relation to low pay and shift changes and days worked.

Among the restructuring plans in Glasgow were financial terms for the departures of five officials at a total cost of £1,035,000.

The officials included Ms O’Donnell and Mr Anderson. The others were Carole Forrest, solicitor to the council and director of governance; Anne Connolly, principal adviser to the chief executive; and Elaine Galletly, head of legal and administration.

The total package included £268,000 in redundancy payments and £770,000 in extra pension costs.

However, the plans and the restructuring report were not discussed or shared with councillors.

The Accounts Commission report said there had been a lack of appropriate scrutiny, transparency and accountability in the process, and that possible conflicts of interest should have been obvious to the senior officers.

There appears to have been a similar finding by the police at Dumbarton where also it was decided not to take the matter further.

It said this displayed a “lack of judgement” as independent scrutiny should have been applied.

Chief Executive Ms O’Donnell’s early retirement, aged 59, from Glasgow City Council had been justified on the grounds of “efficiency” under the restructuring plan.

The Accounts Commission said her departure, after a decade in the post, was “particularly difficult” to justify on the grounds of cost savings and succession planning, as the post of chief executive still remained within the council.

It said “the rationale for the former chief executive’s retirement contributing to efficiencies was, at best, unclear”.

Ms O’Donnell’s early retirement in May 2024 would have cost the council £317,000 in pension fund costs, but she has since agreed to repay the money.

Her departure came after:

The council’s own independent investigation into the matter, carried out by law firm Brodies and also used by the auditors, found no evidence to suggest any of the five officers acted improperly, but it had “given the appearance of a conflict of interest”.

The Brodies report said the exit terms offered to four of the former officers were in line with council policies, but that those offered to Ms O’Donnell were not “lawfully approved”.

Andrew Burns, the deputy chair of the Accounts Commission, described the report as “alarming” and said taxpayers would be troubled at how their money was being spent.

“The actions taken by a group of senior staff at Glasgow City Council fell short of the values and principles every public sector worker and councillor are expected to follow,” he said.

“There was a failure to address and document how potential conflicts of interest were considered, and a failure to demonstrate how the guiding principles of working in the public sector – in particular selflessness, integrity and objectivity – had been applied.”

Glasgow City Council’s deputy leader Richard Bell, who previously called for the officials to return their pay-outs, said “quite extraordinary steps” had to be taken to establish what happened.

He added: “While neither the independent, external review or this report from the commission make for comfortable reading, they do give us a base to build trust and confidence from – and, I think, they also serve as an important warning to other public bodies.

“Glasgow had already moved quickly to change processes and allow elected members proper oversight when senior officials leave the council, which is noted in this report.

“Members must now make sure the council reflects on the commission’s findings and uses them to drive forward a change in culture.”

Scottish Conservative finance and local government spokesman Craig Hoy said the report “could hardly be more damning” for the council.

“Glasgow’s SNP-run council rode roughshod over the rules and, as a result, departing officials received eye-watering payouts with little to no oversight,” he said.

So, what is happening with public money in West Dunbartonshire? West Dunbartonshire Council appear to be adhering to the lies they told when The Democrat editor was “thrown out” of a meeting without reference to democratic protocols.

Since then the editor has been threatened by a senior Labour councillor for supporting a protest against the closure of Balloch community library, which has been moved into the local primary school and was closed this week because of the school holiday weekend.