THE former leader of Northumberland County Council has claimed he is aware of a former council officer who was “forced out” of the authority and suggested there has been a “systemic issue” in terms of employment practices.

Cllr Peter Jackson made the comments at a meeting of the council’s audit committee during a discussion on the council’s ongoing review of exit packages.

The review of redundancy payments has been going on for some time amid concerns some large payments made to departing council officers could have been unlawful – but Cllr Jackson felt the committee didn’t have enough information on the ongoing process to do its job properly.

At the meeting, councillors only received a small point on an action plan which said the committee would be kept informed “where appropriate”.

Cllr Jackson said: “We had a report last meeting which was actually quite concerning. We thought we were going to get a further report with more detail, particularly on some of the employment practices around senior directors – not just exit payments.

“The section 151 officer did indicate that there was a potential section 114 notice coming in relation to these matters. It is a key responsibility of this committee to ensure that the council is operating legally and all good governance is being observed.

“If it doesn’t, it’s our duty to report it. To brush over it with it on an action plan is not detailed enough, it doesn’t give me the confidence that this work is going to be done.”

A section 114 notice is only issued on two occasions – either a council has gone bankrupt or unlawful expenditure has been identified. 

In May last year, a section 114 notice was issued relating to the council’s participation in the Northumbria International Alliance and the to an allowance paid to the then chief executive Daljit Lally. Mrs Lally left the council in July.

The meeting’s independent chairman, Stephen Watson, assured Cllr Jackson that the council’s top finance and legal officers were looking into the situation, including as to whether there was a systemic issue around exit payments at all levels – but Cllr Jackson felt there were other issues that needed to be looked at.

He said: “It is actually wider than that. It came into focus when I came across an ex-officer of the council who was convinced that he had been forced out of the organisation without any due process. It’s another example.

"I think there has been a systemic issue in employment and dismissal practices, not just exit payments.”

Mr Watson asked Cllr Jackson not to go into individual cases and added: “That is what we’re all looking to investigate at the current time.”

The head of the council’s internal audit, Kevin McDonald, confirmed his team were looking into a range of issues, while Jan Willis, the council’s head of finance, said individual exit payments were still being investigated.

She said: “The monitoring officer and I are still considering the individual cases that we’re aware of. If further transactions come to light through the work of internal audit, we will add them to the list.”

Ms Willis said the work would likely be completed before current interim monitoring officer Suki Binjal leaves the authority later this year.

Neither the amount of money paid out in potentially unlawful payments, nor who the payments were made to, has been revealed.