'Flawed' investigation by local authority amounts to maladministration

Tynwald Commissioner for Administration says board failed to follow its complaints procedure

A local authority failed to follow its complaints procedure following the departure of a senior staff member.

The Tynwald Commissioner for Administration recorded a finding of maladministration by the board after being asked to investigate the matter by the employee's wife.

Mrs X, as she's called in the Tynwald Commissioner's report, referred the issue to Angela Main Thompson in July 2020 following her husband's departure from a senior post with a local authority in April 2018.

The commissioners, who haven't been identified in the report, accepted Mr X's resignation following a period of mediation.

Mrs X alleged that the commissioners' response to two controversial events during her husband's tenure resulted in reputational damage to her family.

Mr X moved back to the UK after he ceased to be employed by the authority, but Mrs X remained in the area, and says she withdrew from local life because she was sensitive to criticism of her husband, with his departure leading to gossip and criticism of the commissioners.

After she made a formal complaint to the board, they appointed an independent investigator, but she raised concerns that the investigator wasn't independent as he was an existing consultant paid by the authority.

Despite the independent investigator compiling a report in January 2020, Mrs X did not receive a copy until July 2020, which included inconsistent redactions.

The Tynwald Commissioner investigated a number of issues surrounded the case, including the alleged reading of a libellous poem at the commissioners' Christmas party, which one commissioner also posted to Facebook.

Ms Main Thompson found the commissioner would have been aware that there was a non-disclosure agreement between Mr X and the authority and that posting in this way was an error of judgment, but not a board decision - therefore this was not an act of maladministration.

However, she did find the independent investigator failed to pay due regard to the principles of perceived bias, and that the commissioners failed to discuss with the investigator how the report should be structured to avoid redaction.

Ms Main Thompson says these flaws led to the investigation being inadvertently tainted by procedural unfairness, amounting to maladministration.

Ms Main Thompson's report also raises concerns that the commissioners did not evidence the seven principles of public life - also known as the Nolan principles - and that they may still not be fully understood by all authorities or embedded in the culture.