Councillors have expressed alarm that the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) is paying two chief executives at the same time without officially explaining why. Weca audit committee chairman and Bristol Cllr Geoff Gollop, an accountant, says the reasons should have been disclosed in the authority’s annual accounts, published last week.
Instead, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) revealed that Richard Ennis, who received £268,000 in 2022/23, has been paid as interim acting chief exec for the last seven months and counting while the permanent postholder Patricia Greer is on full salary while on long-term sick leave. Mr Ennis told the committee on Monday, July 3, that Weca had been “very open and very public” about the situation, following questions from the LDRS, despite no explanation for the dual payments in the annual draft statement of accounts.
Cllr Gollop (Conservative, Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze) told the meeting at the combined authority’s new headquarters at Redcliff Street in Bristol city centre that he would not accept or sign-off the papers, which go up to March 31, without that. He said: “While the information is very open about the fact we were paying two chief executives for four months of the year, there is no explanation of that or where that is going or what has happened to that.
