Home   News   Article

Audit of appointment that cost Highland Council almost £1000 a day finds 'weaknesses and irregularities' but no wrong-doing as councillors are blamed for the consultant's early departure


By Scott Maclennan

Easier access to your trusted, local news. Subscribe to a digital package and support local news publishing.



Click here to sign up to our free newsletters!
The Highland Council logo outside the local authority's Inverness HQ.
The Highland Council logo outside the local authority's Inverness HQ.

An audit into Highland Council's appointment of a consultant to the post of head of education has revealed it cost the public purse a whopping £70,200 for just three months of work.

Revelations the council was shelling out £936 a day sparked uproar from councillors who the audit partially blames for the early departure of Paul Senior in August of last year.

The probe also found the appointment process did not breach policy or was made under emergency powers but equally that only “limited assurance” that “weaknesses and irregularities” existed in the process.

The report states: “The fees paid amounted to £70,200 and the comparable cost including on-costs for a permanent executive chief officer is just under £39,630. Therefore, there was an additional cost of just over £30,500.”

Councillors were livid at the cost but also Mr Senior’s apparent refusal to discuss detailed questions about local schools. At the education committee, he advised some councillors that it was not the forum for such a detailed exchange, further stoking their anger.

The report stated: “Whilst scrutiny of decision making is an important part of members’ duties, there were comments made in the press, during committee meetings and through social media directed at the post holder by name and his daily rate which could be considered as breaches of the Code of Conduct.

“It was established from the interviews that member behaviour was one of the factors in the departure of the consultant.”

A council spokesperson said: “The audit found that the decision to appoint a consultant due to previous unsuccessful recruitment attempts, was made by the Member Recruitment Panel before the Covid-19 pandemic affected council operations and was not made under emergency powers. No breaches of council policy or the Scheme of Delegation were found."

Next week’s audit and scrutiny committee will hear the full report.

Click here to read more on the story


Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.



This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies - Learn More