Croydon LBC is pushing ahead with plans to clawback hundreds of thousands of pounds paid out to ex-chief executive Jo Negrini (JN).
A report to a full council meeting yesterday revealed the ‘recoupment of the [£437,000] settlement payment’ made to Ms Negrini, who left the council months before Croydon became only the second in England in 20 years to issue a section 114 notice, was ‘still the subject of further legal consideration’.
Independent investigator Richard Penn – a senior associate with the Local Government Association – recommended in a report leaked earlier this year that ‘members consider a review of the settlement agreement that was signed by the council with the former chief executive and whether the concerns raised in this initial investigation constitute a repudiatory breach of her contract and thus a breach of the terms of the settlement’.
An April 2022 note of advice by Jane Mulcahy QC, of legal firm Blackstone Chambers, previously said the council’s prospects of success were ‘better than evens’.
Ms Mulcahy wrote: ‘It is likely that JN breached the [settlement] agreement by her actions – alternatively inaction – concerning the Fairfield Halls refurbishment in that she must have been aware of the chaotic and probably unlawful approach to the refurbishment at the time of entering into the agreement whereas the council was not so aware, and/or she should reasonably have known that her part in the debacle constituted a repudiatory breach of the contract.’
A March 2022 note by law firm Browne Jacobson said an investigation by external auditor Grant Thornton ‘resulted in findings of significant failings by JN [Jo Negrini] and failures by her to discharge her contractual and statutory obligations’.
The legal talks come after the council’s appointment and disciplinary committee said it did not believe the ‘settlement payments made to the former chief executive were value for money’ after they were queried by Grant Thornton.
Ms Negrini did not respond to a request for comment.