The Information Commissioner has ruled that the Vale of GlamorganPlaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood. council should release full information on the costs of employing education consultants following a successful appeal by
The AM for South Wales Central has now called on the local authority to end the secrecy over the issue following an investigation and a 25-page judgement by Assistant Commissioner Anne Jones.
Leanne Wood lodged an appeal under the Freedom of Information Act after the Vale council, while disclosing the £46,000 bill for employing two consultants Dewi Jones and Celia Butler in 2008-09, it refused to say how many days each of them was employed for and what each of them was paid, citing “commercial interests of other parties”.
But in her judgement Anne Jones said: “The council did not provide the Commissioner with any firm arguments to support its view that the disclosure would be likely to prejudice the consultants’ or the council’s own interests.”
Ann Jones said: “There is a strong public interest in transparency in relation to the use of public money and ensuring that public authorities are achieving the best price for work that it outsourced to external companies.”
She ruled that the council breached and incorrectly applied six sections of the Freedom of Information Act, including failing to provide the information within 20 days. Anne Jones said the authority should provide the information requested within 35 days. Failure by the authority to do so could lead to the council facing High Court action.
The Assistant Commissioner also expressed concern that an internal review asked for by Leanne Wood took more than 50 working days to be completed. She said that the review should not take more than 20 working days and in exceptional cases no longer than 40 working days.
Leanne Wood said: “I welcome this decision by the Information Commissioner who has ruled the public should be entitled to details of the way the authority spends public money. I hope the Vale of Glamorgan council will, as a matter of urgency, provide the information requested and end the cloak of secrecy.
“People have a right to know how much of their money the authority is paying for these consultancy services – was it £500, £750 or £1,000 a day? At best it shows the council did not have a grasp of the operation of the Freedom of Information Act. But at worst it will be seen as an attempt by the council to cover up what it paid consultants’ for a day’s work.”
Fellow Plaid AM Chris Franks, who is a former Vale of Glamorgan councillor, said: “This is a damning indictment of the Vale council and its attempt to keep how it spends public money on consultants secret.
“Plaid calls on the Vale to embrace the Freedom of Information Act fully and not attempt to dodge it because the release of such information is potentially embarrassing. Secrecy is unacceptable among public bodies and as the MPs expenses scandal has shown, people are not prepared to put up with it.”
