Glasgow, Fat Cats and Golden Goodbyes (May 19, 2025)

Here's a letter I sent to all Glasgow councillors including the SNP council leader, Susan Aitken, back in August 2018.

Cllr Aitken says she had no idea about the terms on which her outgoing chief executive, Annemarie O'Donnell, was leaving the council's employment which sounds completely ridiculous.

Why would the SNP be so uninterested and incurious given Glasgow's terrible track record on these hugely generous 'golden goodbyes' for senior officials?

 

All Glasgow Councillors and MSPs

Weasel Words, Double Standards and Equal Pay

I attach the latest post from my blog which explains the  background to a hugely generous 'golden goodbye' payment to a departing senior official (Lynn Brown) of Glasgow City Council.

I am continuing to pursue the Freedom of Information aspects of this payment and I suspect the case will end up being referred to the Scottish Information Commissioner (SIC), but there are also serious issues of probity and good governance involved which ought to concern elected members of Glasgow City Council.

Because my reading of the City Council's 'Scheme of Delegation' is that the chief executive (Annemarie O'Donnell) had no authority to spend £120,079 of public money to boost a senior colleague's pension pot, especially when this person had no contractual entitlement to receive such a payment.   

In effect, the payment amounted to the award of 'added years' by another route and was clearly a 'gift' since its sole purpose was to benefit a senior council colleague, who was also a rival for the post of GCC chief executive.

So I do hope that Glasgow Councillors will raise this issue within the City Council itself because my understanding is that the £120,079 payment was made without the knowledge or support of the council's elected  leadership at the time.

I am also copying this letter to all Glasgow constituency MSPs and MPs as the whole business stinks to high heaven from the perspective of low paid workers who are still fighting the City Council over their rights to equal pay.

Kind regards



Mark Irvine

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