The lead government commissioner installed at Liverpool City Council has denied reports that he forced former chief executive Tony Reeves from his job.
Mr Reeves dramatically quit as the council's most senior officer last week after days of speculation. Many in and around the council believe his relationship with the commissioners had become untenable and that he jumped before he was pushed.
But that narrative has been challenged by Mike Cunningham, who is heading up the team of commissioners at the council. When asked by the ECHO if his relationship with Mr Reeves had broken down to an irreparable state, he said: "That's not true, I'm not going to say too much about the chief executive, he's left the organisation.
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"But what I can absolutely say is that on a personal level, our relationship was good. I like to think he would say the same, so whatever you are hearing about our relationship is not the case." Mr Cunningham said suggestions he and his fellow commissioners had forced Mr Reeves out as 'pure speculation.'
But a senior city councillor has rubbished this response. Opposition leader Richard Kemp said Mr Reeves did not want to leave his job, adding: "The fact is that Tony Reeves didn't want to go and his resignation has knocked the morale of staff. He's gone because the commissioners wanted him out. To deny that he was pushed out is simply not true."
A report into the council's botched handling of a major electricity contract, carried out by independent accountants Mazars and published today, has specifically criticised the leadership of Mr Reeves.
It states that the 'Chief Executive Officer (CEO) did not have controls in place to flag major risks ahead of time." It also criticises his leadership style, stating that he had 'insufficient knowledge of the detail of major contracts', that he had 'not encouraged a risk management culture', was 'not aware of the significant work pressures of council employees' and had 'not always created an environment where colleagues could speak or were encouraged to speak openly about errors."
Speaking to the ECHO, Mr Cunningham said: "There are widespread issues highlighted in this report, issues around clarity of roles and responsibilities, around good report writing, things being prepared well in advance and the ability to communicate well within the organisation. But I've led organisations before and inevitably the buck stops with the person at the top of the organisation."
Mr Cunningham's team were the first to flag up issues with the electricity contract. He said that senior leaders at the council did not immediately appear to pick up on their significance.
He added: "Its a matter of record that I raised this with the chief executive on March 17 to flag that there was a problem. At the first moment I don't think there was an awareness of the scale of the problem, that's absolutely true. It wasn't immediately obvious to the senior leaders how serious this was. It did take subsequent conversations to make that clear."
The lead commissioner said the Mazars report is just an indication of the council's wider problems. He said: "This contract is not the only problem, its symptomatic of a wider malaise within the organisation. Of course there were difficult conversations between me and the senior leaders, both political and officers, I think the people of Liverpool would expect that. It is not a cost relationship and nor should it be. But that doesn't mean its a dysfunctional relationship."
Lib Dem leader Cllr Kemp, who has been increasingly critical of the commissioners in recent months, said they should take a good amount of responsibility for the energy mistakes. He said: "They also should have known enough to look at the major potential problem coming down the tracks. I think they should take their share of blame for what happened."
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