Revealed: How Kent County Council paid directors £1m to leave
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Exclusive by political editor Paul
Francis
Seven former directors of Kent County Council have between them
received nearly £1million in pay-offs over the last five years.
The county council says that over the period, it has paid more
than £1.7million to 54 former employees in so-called "exit
agreements."
Of the £1.7million, some £955,267 was paid to seven senior
directors, representing an average of a lump sum of £136,467 for
each.
In some cases, pay-offs – which KCC describes as "compromise
agreements" - are made to avoid possible claims against unfair
dismissal. The lump sums are agreed on top of any pension or other
payments staff might have been entitled to when they leave.
The individual amounts paid to the 54 individual employees,
which average £31,500 each, have not been disclosed as KCC says
that they are covered by confidentiality agreements.
But the disclosure has triggered a political row.
Opposition Liberal Democrat Cllr Tim Prater said it raised
questions about how the authority managed the departure of former
staff.
"To have to pay top members of staff a total of almost £1million
seems to me to indicate some kind of failing in management," he
said. "There are questions to be asked of any business that had
contracts with people and those people were then paid off nearly
£1million to get rid of them with the minimum of fuss."
He said KCC needed to ensure that its policy on such pay-offs
was "clear and consistent and that people were not being paid money
to go away and not sue the council."
Cllr Roger Gough (Con), cabinet member for corporate
support services, said he was satisfied the authority had acted
appropriately and downplayed the sums involved.
"These cover a range of different circumstances and in a lot of
these cases, there is little or no difference to what would
actually have in any case been paid out under the terms of the
employees’ contract. This is the best way of ensuring the best
interests both of the employee and the council in terms of sorting
out their departure in reasonably quick and sensible way."
It was not a way of avoiding the embarrassment of tribunals, he
added and any agreements were referred to the Audit Commission -
the public spending watchdog - to ensure agreements were value for
money.
Friday, December 11 2009
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