News / Politics
Accusations Bristol City Council paid ‘hush money’ to get rid of former chief executive
Bristol City Council paid its “toxic” former chief executive “hush money” to get rid of her, it was claimed at a committee meeting.
Gary Hopkins, a Lib Dem councillor for Knowle, claimed a £98,000 discretionary sum awarded to Anna Klonowski when she quit was to “cover up for the lies” that were told about her departure.
Marvin Rees has constantly denied any wrongdoing by paying Klonowski the sum, which he said was part of her contractual agreement and the council says it was paid in line with legal advice at the time.
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But auditors at BDO found the payment was outside the terms of her contract and have reclassified it as discretionary in the council’s accounts from last year.
The role of chief executive has been scrapped since Klonowski’s departure
Addressing the audit committee, where the accounts were approved pending a few minor adjustments on Tuesday, Hopkins described the £98,000 portion of Klonowski’s final payment of £196,000 as “hush money paid by the mayor”.
Paula O’ Rourke, Green councillor for Clifton, said she thought the chief executive’s departure had been “convenient” for the council.
“It’s time to speak the truth,” she told the committee. “There was an employee that was no longer effective and to a certain extent had become very toxic.”
Read more: Bristol City Council scraps £160k chief executive role
The committee agreed to seek an internal investigation into the processes behind the discretionary payment to ensure the council could not make the same mistake again.
Investigating the payment was one of the reasons BDO gave for the three-month delay producing the final accounts.
Responding to the audit, a spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: “The auditor has advised that an accounting adjustment is required to the section of the accounts relating to officers’ remuneration.
“This adjustment is for clarity purposes and has now been rectified at no additional cost to the council. The additional payment was made in line with the legal advice at the time.”
The Final Statement of Accounts for the year ended March 31, 2018, was meant to have been submitted by July 31 but is still awaiting official sign-off.
A representative from BDO apologised for the delay, saying there had been a number of complex issues to deal with.
Members unanimously voted to accept the accounts as “true and fair” but are waiting for some final wording from BDO which will reflect the findings of their investigation into the final payment to Klonowski.
The auditors did not identify any significant risks in their audit.
Bristol has decided to stop using BDO for its audit services and its accounts will be completed by Grant Thornton from next year.
Amanda Cameron is a local democracy reporter for Bristol.
Read more: ‘Golden goodbye for Bristol City Council chief executive unjustifiable’
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