The boss of the West of England Combined Authority was warned by her top legal adviser that a £59,000 severance package to a senior officer was “unlawful”, finance watchdogs found. External auditors Grant Thornton concluded there was also “doubt” that the exit payment to the director of infrastructure achieved best value for taxpayers’ money.
They found that while it was a legal requirement for chief executive Patricia Greer to have been advised over the payoff by director of legal services and monitoring officer Shahzia Daya and chief finance officer Malcolm Coe, both were excluded from the process.
Dr Greer feared they had a conflict of interest in the value of the payment as they were both also on their way out of the combined authority over the next few months.
