Standards of Conduct in Local Government: A Paradox and an Unanswerable Question
| Author | Howard Elcock |
| DOI | 10.1177/014473949501500202 |
| Published date | 01 September 1995 |
| Date | 01 September 1995 |
Teaching Public Administration: Autumn, 1995,
Vol.
xv.
No.2,
pp
15-30
STANDARDS
OF
CONDUCT
IN
LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
A PARADOX AND AN UNANSWERABLE QUESTION
HOWARD ELCOCK
University
of
Northumbria
at
Newcastle
THE
ESTABLISHED RULES
OF
CONDUCT
We begin with a paradox. On the one hand, local government periodically suffers from the
perception that
it
is
a.
hotbed
of
corruption, as
well
as inefficiency; the origins
of
this
perception date back at least as far as Chadwick's condemnation
of
"corrupt vestries"
in
the
1840s.
In
the
Civil
Service,
in
particular, local government has a reputation for inefficiency
and malpractice (CLD, 1994).
It
is
very difficult to know whether these suspicions are
justified because
it
is
impossible to determine whether the relatively small number
of.
cases
detected, and the (mostly) modest sums
of
money involved
in
them, relate to most
of
the
instances
of
corruption that actually occur, or whether they are the tips
of
a much larger
iceberg
of
malpractice. The latter
may
often be suspected, even
if
it
cannot be proved (Doig,
1984). On the other hand, uniquely among Britain's elected representatives and members
of
other public bodies, local councillors are subject to severe penalties
if
they are found to have
been acting illegally or improperly. They can be surcharged
by
the District Auditor with any
illegal or improper expenditure for which they voted at committee and council meetings and,
after a court hearing, they can be disqualified from office (Local Government Act 1972,
section 161). The imposition
of
a surcharge often has the additional effect
of
rendering the
councillor bankrupt, with the result that
he
or she can
no
longer stand for public office.
Famous examples where councillors were surcharged and disqualified include the Poplar case
(Roberts
v.
Hopwood, 1925,
AC
578)
in
1925 when councillors were surcharged for paying
wages to their workers at above the national rates; Clay Cross Urban District Council
in
1973, when councillors were surcharged for refusing to increase rents
in
accordance with the
requirements
of
the 1972 Housing Finance Act; and the surcharge and disqualification
of
most
of
the Labour councillors on Liverpool City Council and Lambeth London Borough
Council
in
1985 for setting their rates late because they were resisting the Government's
financial restrictions (Parkinson, 1985, 1987).
In
all
these cases, however, the surcharge
arose from a policy conflict with the central government which resulted
in
councillors being
dragged before the courts;
in
none
of
them was there
any
suggestion that the councillors
concerned had acted corruptly.
Apart from the legal sanction
of
surcharge
and
disqualification, there are arguably
five
mechanisms for the prevention
of
corruption
in
local government. The first
is
the strict rules
laid
down
in
the
law
and
in
local authorities' Standing Orders concerning the necessity for
councillors to declare an interest when they have
any
financial involvement
in
a decision
being taken
by
a committee or the council (LGA 1972, sections 93-98). Having thus
declared their interest, they are then required to abstain from speaking or voting
in
any
IS
Teaching Public Administration
debate on that matter and they may be required
to
leave the meeting altogether during the
discussion
of
the item -indeed this practice is recommended
in
the National Code
of
Local
Government Conduct (DoE, 1975). These rules concerning declarations
of
interest are far
stricter than those which apply
in
the House
of
Commons - a point which was not lost
on
the
Nolan Committee. Although that Committee's proposals for disclosure
of
interest are
unacceptable
to
many MPs, as evidenced
by
the decisions
of
the Select Committee which
examined the Nolan Committee's first report, they are no more stringent than those which
apply
to
councillors (The Guardian, 2nd November 1995). There are also strict rules
covering the families
of
councillors and officers who apply for jobs
in
their authority. Thus it
is
an offence for an applicant not to disclose any relationship· he
or
she may have with a
councillor
or
officer
of
a local authority with which he
or
she is seeking employment.
Furthermore, canvassing for appointment is expressly forbidden
in
local authority Standing
Orders. These rules are strong barriers against corruption and nepotism but no rules,
however clear and stringent they may be, can prevent occasional incidents
of
malpractice.
However,
in
1993-1994, the Audit Commission determined that
of
the £33 million
offrauds
they detected, only ten per cent had been perpetrated by councillors. Slack management is
far more costly (Walker, 1995).
However, the position governing the need
to
declare non-pecuniary interests
is
much less
clear and has from time
to
time aroused considerable controversy. Thus the National Code
of
Conduct says that:
'The
law makes specific provision requiring you to disclose pecuniary interests, direct
and indirect, but interests which are not pecuniary can be just as important. Kinship,
friendship, membership
of
an association, society
or
trade union, trusteeship and
many other kinds
of
relationship can sometimes influence your judgement and give
the impression that you might be acting for personal motives' (DoE, 1975, para. 3).
Councillors might be influenced
by
friends
or
associates
in
ways which do not involve
financial malpractice but which can still result
in
unfair
or
improper decisions. This problem
has been raised
in
particular with reference
to
Freemasonry. Stephen Knight has warned that
"almost every local authority
in
the country has its own Freemasonic Lodge, the temple often
situated within the Town
or
County Hall" (Knight, 1983, p 97). In consequence,
' ....... three things can happen which are generally considered undesirable:
(1) There
is
fraternisation between council officers and elected members who,
in
the
public interest, should keep each other at arm's length.
(2) Party differences are broken down and men who have a duty fiercely to oppose
each other
in
the council chamber and
in
all
their actions on behalf
of
the electorate
are brought together
in
intimate harmony.
(3) There
is
undesirable contact with local businessmen -builders, architects, etc. -
who often join such Lodges blatantly
to
curry favour and exploit the Masonic bond
to
canvass for local authority contracts' (Knight, p 199).
16
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