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LOCAL LIB DEM CALLS FOR FIRE AUTHORITY CHAIR TO RESIGN OVER ‘IMMORAL’ OVERTIME PAYMENTS

by Steve Ayris on 15 December, 2015

alert_fireLocal Graves Park Lib Dem Cllr. Steve Ayris plans to bring a motion to the next full meeting of the Sth. Yorks Fire & Rescue Authority calling for Jim Andrews – chair of the SYFRA – to stand down, following questionable overtime payments made to senior staff during the 2009 and 2013 fire service strikes.

At the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority Audit 4Sutton_fire-engineCommittee on Monday, Graves Park Liberal Democrat Councillor Steve Ayris criticised the internal report into overtime payments and its recommendations.

Cllr. Steve Ayris says:

Considering the magnitude of these ‘unconventional’ payments, it is clear Jim Andrews, as Chair of the Authority has acted beyond his delegated authority in 2009 and again in 2013 by failing to report such action and associated expenditure and that’s why I will be calling for him to consider his position and resign as Chairman of the Fire & Rescue Authority.

For anyone to authorise payments of what is almost £140,000 of tax-payers money and hide it from scrutiny is immoral, whether or not the internal report says it was strictly legal.

An investigation was launched within the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority after The Yorkshire Post 2windsor-s-fire-enginediscovered overtime payments running into tens of thousands of pounds were made to chief fire officers already in receipt of salary packages worth up to £185,000.

The payments, which total £139,474, had been authorised by Chair of the Fire and Rescue Authority, Jim Andrews, without the knowledge of the wider fire authority. The report states that the payments in 2009 were not brought to the Fire Authority due to sensitive industrial relations at the time and the 2013 payments were made in the same way following the precedent set in 2009.

£62,504 of the payments were made to ‘Principal Officers’ (POs), who are contracted to work “hours … in accordance with the needs of the service…”, and therefore ‘overtime’ is not usually applied to these roles.

To view the webcast of the South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Special Audit Committee meeting on Monday 14 December 2015 on the Review of Overtime Payments to Principal Officers, click here.

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