A total of 37 employees of Caerphilly Council were suspended during 2024-25– but officials are refusing to reveal what the financial cost was to the authority, it has been revealed.
Plaid Cymru Co-Deputy Group Leader Gary Enright, himself a former employee of the authority, criticised the failure to provide the detailed costs of the suspensions.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Plaid Cymru also revealed that the longest suspension to the date of the request ran to 346 calendar days.
Councillor Gary Enright said: “Frankly, it beggars belief that the council cannot provide the information requested at the touch of a button.
“Residents have a right to know how taxpayers’ money is being spent, not hiding behind an FOI clause not to disclose. If there was nothing to hide then the council would be open and honest about this worrying process. What does the new council leader say about this secrecy?
“The average pay grade ranges between £13,621-£44,873, so if you take the first set of 37 suspended Caerphilly CBC employees during 2024-25 that alone has a ballpark figure of between £1.2m- £1.6m, estimated, of course, because we do not have the data. Either of those amounts would have saved libraries and Llancaiach Fawr from closure.
“I would have expected a more fuller and in-depth response from an organisation the size of Caerphilly Council. I suspect they are withholding it, not because of the time to work it out, but because the figures are eye watering. The fact that officials argue it would take them that long to work it out is evidence alone that it’s not a robustly managed process.
“Ultimately if you have a robust HR process, which manages suspensions correctly then those figures should be readily available and if they are not then they should be. That is a worry because you can’t manage what you are not controlling,” added Councillor Gary Enright.