National Ombudsmen
 Printable version
|
Durham council told to review staff misconduct procedure following ombudsman’s investigation.
Durham County Council has been asked by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) to review the way it deals with staff misconduct complaints after a man claimed he was ‘gazumped’ by a building control officer following an official site visit.
The man was in the process of buying a plot of land and contacted the building control officer to ask for advice about regulations in relation to a soakaway on the plot.
Some months later the officer made an official visit and was asked by the owner if he wanted to buy the land.
During an interview with the LGO the officer said he was told the original buyer had offered over the asking price, and having seen a leaflet on the property he knew roughly how much the original buyer had offered. His higher offer was accepted by the owners.
Despite being in the process of buying the property, the officer did not tell his manager that he was continuing to act as building control officer for the land in which he now had financial and personal interest.
The officer submitted a planning application a month later, but still did not tell his manager, or stop acting as building control officer for the site.
The original buyer complained to the council that the officer had ‘gazumped’ him and his complaint was passed on to a senior manager. But the man was not contacted about his complaint to check he had sent in all the information he wanted to be considered.
The officer gave a statement which included an unfounded allegation and inappropriate comments about the original buyer, but the man was not sent a copy of this statement and had no opportunity to rebut the officer’s allegations.
The manager ended his investigation with a 30 minute meeting with the officer, but there are no notes or any record of the meeting.
However, based on this short meeting the manager decided that there was no breach of the council’s code of conduct, despite the officer admitting he had acted as building control officer for eight weeks after his offer was accepted, in direct breach of the council’s own code of conduct for employees.
Dr Jane Martin, Local Government Ombudsman, said:
“People’s trust in public services is damaged when agreed codes of conduct are not followed. This trust is further eroded if allegations are not investigated in an open, transparent and effective manner.
“Durham council now needs to learn from my report and ensure that complaints of misconduct are acted upon in an appropriate way.”
To remedy the injustice the council should review the process by which it investigates complaints of serious misconduct against its officers to ensure in future it responds properly.
The council has also been asked to apologise to the original buyer and pay him £250 to acknowledge the difficulties and uncertainty caused. The man has decided to give this money to charity.
The remedy was set at this level because the investigation could not prove the original buyer would have completed the purchase but for the officer’s intervention.
