Mired in Scandal (06/08/12)

Well done to the Daily Record for exposing another disgraceful chapter in the life of South Lanarkshire Council.

Here's a story which appeared in the paper last week - and shines a light on the controversial departure of the council's finance chief in April 2011.

To my mind spending £500,000 on a early retirement package for a senior council official - is an obscene waste of public money.

Yet the council fails to offer a proper explanation for its actions and simply brushes aside the criticisms of Scotland's public spending watchdog - Audit Scotland.

If you ask me it's high time the Scottish Government took a long hard look at what's going on inside South Lanarkshire Council - which looks increasingly arrogant and out of control.

Golden goodbye scandal: Council chief pocketed £500k severance package.. after receiving £63k garden leave pay

The Daily Record revealed yesterday the severance package had been paid to finance chief Linda Hardie by Labour-led South Lanarkshire Council.

The council who gave a £500,000 payoff to a boss who “retired” at 50 have been savaged by a financial watchdog for paying her another £63,000 to stay at home.

The Daily Record revealed yesterday the severance package had been paid to finance chief Linda Hardie by Labour-led South Lanarkshire Council.

Hardie’s department lost £100,000 of taxpayers’ money to a fraud scam and made £38million worth of “arithmetical errors” in budget cuts.

Now we can reveal the council have been criticised by the public spending watchdog for allowing Hardie to spend six months on her full £127,000-a-year salary before picking up her massive package.

A report for Audit Scotland says: “There is no documentary evidence to demonstrate value for money for the full pay provided from 18 October, 2010, to 18 April, 2011.”

The report also reveals that Hardie’s deal was approved only by her fellow paid officials, contrary to Audit Scotland’s guidelines, which say elected councillors should be involved in early retirement packages.

That has prompted questions about who exactly is running the council, who are fighting a costly legal battle against their own female staff over equal pay.

Local SNP MSP Christina McKelvie said: “Given that they are dragging their heels over equal pay claims, how could they justify using scarce resources to award such a staggering payoff?

Council leader Eddie McAvoy has some serious questions to answer. Why is it that decisions about early retirement appear to have been left to council management?

Did McAvoy have any knowledge of this golden goodbye and does he think it was appropriate or necessary? The buck stops with the administration, and they now must explain what steps they are taking to avoid such obscene payoffs in future.”

SNP ministers are also demanding answers from the council about the payoff – which saw Hardie receive £106,000 severance plus £427,000 paid into her pension.

McAvoy was abroad on holiday and could not be contacted for comment.

A council spokesman said: “The council followed early retirement approval procedures as detailed in standing orders. The retirement provision was in line with the contract of employment and with general employment law and pension regulations.”

A DINNER LADY'S TALE.

It would take half a century for the average female worker fighting South Lanarkshire Council for equal pay to earn the £500,000 payoff handed to finance chief Linda Hardie.

Hardie took early retirement aged just 50 in April last year but the details of her package have only emerged now.

One dinner lady of 55, who is among those fighting for equal pay, earns £10,000 a year for a 30-hour week – but Hardie will get six times that in pension.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: “When I saw what she was getting, it made me sick to the pit of my stomach.

“If I worked every day for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t earn the money she has walked away with.

“The council have done everything they can to stop us getting a fair deal and just hand over cash like that to someone who made a hash of her job.”

The council are refusing to accept an employment tribunal’s ruling that they must offer the women, including cleaners and dinner ladies, equal pay.

The worker added: “All the money that is being used to fight us is also a waste of taxpayers’ cash because we are not giving up until we win.”