Pembrokeshire council chief pay-off 'contrary to law'

Ian Westley left the authority after 17 years in Pembrokeshire and 38 in local government

There was a serious breakdown in governance at a council which awarded its former chief executive a £95,000 pay-off, the auditor general for Wales has said.

Ian Westley was awarded the figure as part of a deal to leave his role at Pembrokeshire council in November 2020.

Adrian Crompton said a decision to make the termination payment to Mr Westley was "contrary to law".

The council said it welcomed the detailed report by Audit Wales.

The report revealed that the first £30,000 paid to Mr Westley was tax free, adding that the authority's head of legal services raised concerns that it might not be compliant with the council's statutory pay policy statement.

This concern was ignored and the council deviated from its statement without being able to demonstrate good reason for doing so.

The auditor general suggested eight recommendations in all in his report

In a damning report, Mr Crompton highlighted a string of failings before Mr Westley left his post, including:

• A failure to address and resolve relationship difficulties between members and officers

• A lack of clarity on respective roles and responsibilities, examples of officers failing to properly discharge their professional duties

• Disregard of external legal advice

• A failure to follow internal policies and procedures

• Poor and non-transparent decision making

The report said one of the factors that led to the departure of Mr Westley was that "relationships between him and some members of the cabinet were, at the very least, strained and some had irrevocably broken down".

The auditor general suggested eight recommendations in all, including clearly setting out the roles and responsibilities of members and officers, a review of member/officer dispute procedures and making all termination payments in a "transparent way" in future.

The council said it recognised the seriousness of the report and that significant progress had already been made in many of the areas identified.

It also said it recognised that more needed to be done and a comprehensive improvement programme was established last year to address the observations originating from external and internal reviews commissioned by the council.