‘Deteriorating senior officer and member relationships over a number of years' has been a theme in the latest tranche of auditor interventions, a report by Grant Thornton has found.

The report, which looked at a range of interventions including section 114 notices at Slough and Northumberland councils, found officers had been ‘pushed out of the organisation and paid off with non-disclosure agreements and severance payments, which were designed to circumvent transparency and governance'.