Slough Council’s commissioners have sacked chief executive Josie Wragg for ‘gross misconduct’ with immediate effect.
The council was forced to issue a dreaded section 114 notice in July and has estimated a £300m deficit.
Now, Slough’s investigating and disciplinary committee (IDC) has concluded that Ms Wragg’s failure to address the issues facing the council when she joined and a series of failures since was ‘seriously negligent’.
An independent investigation also found that Ms Wragg’s decision to undertake a whole-council restructure ‘financially blind’ before Slough’s accounts had been signed off was ‘reckless’.
The investigation concluded that Ms Wragg, who was appointed in August 2018 but had recently been ‘away from the office,’ had ‘failed to provide effective corporate leadership or build a stable and effective corporate management team, failed to ensure adequate corporate capacity, and failed to put in place effective council governance’.
It also found she had failed to ensure that posts at all levels including statutory officer posts were ‘appropriately filled,’ ‘failed to monitor, challenge or manage the council’s revenue budget, borrowing or capital programme’ and ‘failed to identify, manage or mitigate key risks facing the council’.
In addition, the investigation concluded Ms Wragg had ‘demonstrated a lack of awareness and acceptance of the need for improvement, failed to ensure recommendations from audit and peer reviews were implemented in a timely manner, and failed to develop an adequate or credible response to the s114 notice’.
External partners had reportedly no confidence that Ms Wragg was ‘capable of leading the council through its current difficulties’.
A decision announced by lead commissioner Max Caller read: ‘We particularly noted that the IDC concluded it was reckless of the chief executive to proceed with reorganising the council during [a] pandemic without the necessary financial and operational knowledge.’
In a statement on social networking website LinkedIn, Ms Wragg wrote: 'I am prepared to robustly defend my reputation, which has been established following 30 plus years of otherwise unblemished service in local government, in the face of these baseless claims.'
Last week Slough was warned it would only be considered for a £307m Government bailout to cover its deficits if it proved it could turn itself around financially.