Council chief executives are facing further questions over their costs, after a national newspaper asked to see their expense claims.
After a media onslaught over chief executive pay and pensions, council bosses have been spared the media glare as attentions turned to the growing MPs’ expenses row.
But now a national newspaper has sent Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to local authorities across the country, asking for details of expense claims dating back two years.
Director general of SOLACE, David Clark, told The MJ: ‘Considering the tsunami that has already hit, this is likely to be little more than a wave at Skegness.’
One local government insider told The MJ the expenses were unlikely to cause widespread chaos, as most chief executives were ‘fairly frugal’. However, there might be ‘a couple of interesting’ claims to come up.
ALACE secretary, Alastair Robertson, said: ‘We don’t have a problem with transparency of this information.
‘We have already discussed being more transparent with salary details.’
But, he added, the rules laid down on chief executive expenses were ‘fairly tight’, and the FoIs were ‘unlikely to find anything untoward’.
While there had not been any cases recently, Mr Robertson said local government took the issue so seriously senior staff had lost their jobs in the past over expense claims. ‘It would be interesting to see the expense claims of the journalists asking for this information,’ he added.
l Local government minister, John Healey, this week reiterated his concerns about chief executives’, pay while speaking at the National Association of Pension Funds conference in Birmingham.
Claiming the ‘spiralling cost’ of chief executives pay and pensions must stop, he suggested that it shouldn’t stop lower-paid workers from claiming the pensions they deserved.
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