The leader of Lincolnshire County Council had ‘no malicious intent’ when sharing a confidential contract with Reform bosses, an investigation has found.
However, opponents say that more transparency is needed on “the extremely sensitive” breach, writes Local Democracy Reporter Jamie Waller.
Reform leader Coun Sean Matthews shared a multi-million pound IT contract with Zia Yusuf, the party’s chairman at the time, shortly after his party won control at last year’s local elections.
Cllr Matthews said that he was trying to get the best value of money for the taxpayer.
Lincolnshire County Council has now issued a statement saying that there was no sign of personal gain or malicious intent from the leader, and the information was low-risk.
Coun Matthews said: “Last year I sought external advice after being handed a multi-million pound contract that needed signing less than a week after becoming the leader.
“This information sharing was looked into by officers and I’m pleased that they have confirmed that I had no malicious intent, and that there was very low risk to the council. I’ve now had further guidance on this and I wouldn’t do it again.
“My one driver was, and will always be, making sure I’m doing the best for the people of Lincolnshire and spending their taxpayer money wisely.”
However, Conservative leader Coun Richard Davies said the public needed more details on the investigation.
“The council has issued a non-statement that doesn’t ask answer the questions. What was released to who and when?” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“Did officers just ask Coun Matthews a few questions, or was there a substantial forensic investigation?
“Reform has talked a lot about openness and transparency – now’s their chance. If the leader has done nothing wrong, that deserves to be clear and unequivocal.
“This is very serious, involving a multi-million pound contract covering most sensitive thing the council does – IT controls everything. Nothing is more sensitive.”
Andrew Mclean, executive director of resources at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “We have looked into allegations that confidential contract information had been shared with an unauthorised external individual.
“We found that whilst an attempt had been made to share contract-related documents, there was no evidence of malicious intent, personal gain, financial loss or commercial detriment, and the information was of limited sensitivity.
“The overall risk to the council was assessed as low. We have recommended that further guidance around confidentiality is issued to councillors and officers.”
