South Yorkshire fire boss quits over '˜secret' overtime payments

A FIRE authority chairman is standing down in the wake of controversy surrounding his decision to '˜secretly' approve tens of thousands of pounds in overtime payments to chief fire officers.
Jim AndrewsJim Andrews
Jim Andrews

Jim Andrews’ decision to leave his role emerged at a meeting of South Yorkshire Fire Authority yesterday when a formal call for him to go was made by Sheffield Liberal Democrat councillor Steve Ayris.

The meeting heard that Coun Andrews, the Labour deputy leader of Barnsley Council, had written to members of the fire authority to inform them he would stand down as chairman with his departure timed to co-incide with May’s local elections.

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But despite the letter being referred to during the public meeting of the authority, it was not made publicly available. Neither senior authority officials nor Coun Andrews were available later to clarify why the letter was not being released.

Coun Jim AndrewsCoun Jim Andrews
Coun Jim Andrews

It has previously been revealed that Coun Andrews approved more than £42,000 in overtime payments to chief fire officers for working during strikes between September 2013 and February 2015, without reporting the deal to the fire authority.

The payments, which no other fire services are believed to have made during the nationwide industrial action, were only revealed through a Yorkshire Post investigation. A subsequent internal audit inquiry led to an agreement chief officers would repay the money.

Coun Ayris told yesterday’s meeting that Coun Andrews’ actions had “damaged public confidence” while the only other non-Labour councillor on the 12-strong authority, Doncaster Conservative Cynthia Ransome, said the payments had “brought the fire authority into disrepute”.

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Sheffield councillor Sioned-Mair Richards said the outgoing chairman’s letter had shown how seriously he had taken the issue.

Coun Jim AndrewsCoun Jim Andrews
Coun Jim Andrews

The Labour majority subsequently passed a motion recognising the “considerable achievements” of Coun Andrews during his 16-year stint as authority chairman.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) welcomed the chairman’s departure but said he should leave immediately.

South Yorkshire FBU chairwoman Nicky Brown said: “I think he has made the right decision. Following the clear lack of governance and transparency regarding the overtime payments it’s right that Jim Andrews considered his position and decided to resign.”

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Coun Andrews was absent during the part of the meeting which discussed his position. He had previously said he would not resign when asked after a meeting of the authority last month when his position was also under scrutiny.

The internal audit inquiry into the payments revealed they were withheld from public scrutiny because they were considered too “sensitive”.

The inquiry found “the process and procedures adopted for the payment of Principal Officers… lacked the appropriate transparency and consequently demonstrated a failure in the governance arrangements of the Authority.”

It said Coun Andrews agreed to the payments during an informal meeting with South Yorkshire’s chief fire officer Jamie Courtney. It was thought the meeting took place some time between September and November 2013, which was the period between the first and second of what became a series of nationwide strikes across the service which ended in February last year.

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Mr Courtney, received an extra £14,390 on top of his £185,000 salary package, while his deputy Mark Shaw, who retired last year, received £14,820 and the assistant chief John Roberts, who is now deputy, a further £13,425.

As well as the lack of public scrutiny, the extra pay was controversial because contractually chief fire officers are expected to be continuously available for duty.

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