ON MONDAY (Feb 1) Carmarthenshire County Council’s Executive Board received the report of the Wales Audit Office on the Council’s governance arrangements.
Executive Board members were gratified, it is fair to say predictably, by the positive tenor of the report, particularly with regard to the progress the Council is making towards improving its openness and transparency.
After the meeting, The Herald asked Council Leader Emlyn Dole for his personal response to the report’s content, its recommendations, and what it said about the progress Carmarthenshire County Council has made.
Noting that much had been made about the shift in the Council’s approach to both governance and culture by Plaid Cymru’s press release responding to the WAO report, we asked to what extent Plaid inherited an improving situation and to what extent it had seized the initiative and gone further than Labour might have with the same WLGA report which prompted the announcement of the 39 Steps for improvement piloted by Cllr Dole.
The Council Leader told us: “Yes, you’re absolutely correct the WLGA report was commissioned by the previous administration. The obvious question to ask is what might have been the motivation behind that request.
“As Leader of the Opposition, I regularly called for far greater openness and transparency and I recognised that this could not be achieved without a significant cultural change on the part of the administration. There was definitely a perception that the Authority was being led by officers and in turn this raised the question about the extent to which Executive Board members had a hold on and an understanding of their portfolios.”
Reflecting on the previous administration, Emlyn Dole told us: “Quite frankly there appeared to be a complete lack of leadership under the Labour led administration of the time. The Labour portfolio holders seemed to be completely out of their depth and that was one of the concerns that I was raising.
“When I took over as Leader of the Plaid Group I was determined to offer a constructive and positive opposition and I believe that the decision to commission an independent report on governance was made more as a response to our opposition than out of the goodness of Kevin Madge’s heart.
“I am absolutely certain that he would have been advised at the time that the political pressure being applied by an effective opposition made the commissioning of that report a political imperative.”
But was the situation improving?
Cllr Dole’s answer was unequivocal: “Did we inherit an improving situation in May 2015? No we didn’t. “The Council seemed to be in disarray with no coherent political leadership with no clear sense of direction. This Corporate Assessment is set in the present tense. It is an assessment based on the performance of the current Administration, not the previous one.”
Pointing to the Report’s findings, Cllr Dole told us: “I would point out two things: The recommendations of the cross party committee which considered the WLGA Report came before full Council for implementation under this Administration and just to quote from the Corporate Assessment Report:
- Increasingly collective leadership is supporting a revised vision for Carmarthenshire and sustaining a culture of improvement.
- The Council’s current administration was formed in May 2015 and is providing strong and coherent leadership and direction.
- The new Executive Board and the refreshed Corporate Management Team work well together. Relationships between members and officers are constructive and Executive Board Members challenge officers well within a ‘no blame’ culture. The Executive Board is clearly the owner of the Council’s revised vision, and Executive Board Members are actively involved in setting priorities, business planning and identifying areas for cost reductions.
“You’ll notice the references to both owning and revised vision. Both are relevant in the context of your first question. As to any reference to the past Administration, the following is the most pertinent point and again I quote:
‘The Executive Board has a strong ‘team’ ethos and new Executive Board Members are being mentored and supported by those with more experience.’
Cllr Dole said: “That comment is much appreciated.”
We asked Emlyn Dole about how officers were responding to those areas for improvement identified in the WAO report. He told us: “Officers are currently preparing an action plan that will address the six areas for proposed improvement within the WAO report. These actions will then cascade into the Annual Improvement Plan which will then be closely monitored by Executive Board.”
On whether there was any area of improvement upon which he was personally focused, Cllr Dole responded: “The Corporate Strategy which sets out the long term priorities for the Council as well as the Improvement Plan which is to drive continuous improvement across all that we do.
“As regards the Council’s ICT infrastructure, four work streams have been established which will inform the Business Case for improving the Councils ICT infrastructure. They will be looking at: server infrastructure and disaster recovery arrangements; voice and data networks; access to services – including desktop and mobile/agile working platforms; the applications we use.”
As for future challenges that might be raised by partnership/ collaborative projects or Welsh Government policies, Cllr Dole took a positive view: “The Report praises the collaboration agenda followed by the County Council. My thoughts on any collaboration are focused around improved services and efficiency. If any collaboration we undertake achieves better and improved services and delivers efficiencies as well, then that seems to be a smarter way of working and follows the national guidance on effective service delivery. Any collaborative programme that threatens in any way the resilience of this Council would not be one that would appeal in any way and because of that would be resisted.”
We asked to what extent Cllr Dole’s view had changed on officers’ discharge of their duties since he began working more closely with them. Responding with good humour, Emlyn Dole told our reporter: “Well, the implication of your question is that my present view of senior officers’ abilities to discharge their duties is a different one to what it might have been. I’m afraid that this perception must arise from an over inflated view of the role and reach of the political opposition!”
He continued: “Apart from a monthly liaison meeting with senior officers and a monthly meeting of Group Leaders the opposition are no closer to senior officers than ordinary councilors are, other than through their statutory duties in regard to scrutiny and quasi-judicial roles.
“The view in administration is a totally different one, in that it is at the cutting edge, where applied policy meets corporate operation. Apart from the obvious scrutiny role and ongoing member development training – it is then, and only then that you really get to appreciate and understand the role and responsibilities of senior officers to be able to make an informed judgment about their ability to discharge their duties effectively.”
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