Birmingham City Council is ‘actively exploring’ possible action against its former director of council management Becky Hellard for her role in the collapse of the council.
It comes amid a growing debate over whether the budget was legal if senior finance officials knew the scale of the equal pay liability and failed to include it.
According to a senior Birmingham source, officials were warned of a potential £800m equal pay liability on 3 February – three weeks before the budget was set.
The source told The MJ the council was ‘actively exploring the options in relation to pursuing Ms Hellard, in relation to her conduct in the performance of her statutory role as s151 officer and more broadly as the director of council business management and implementation of the Oracle ERP system’.
To continue reading visit The MJ (£).
If this article was of interest, then check out our features, 'Preventing future Section 114 notices', 'How to fix local government finance', and 'Budgetary Breaking Point: Learning from Birmingham’s mistakes'.
