IC Cheshire

Apr 11 2005

By Larry Neild, Daily Post

A LIVERPOOL City Council executive director has launched a hunt for a "mole" after details of the suspension of a council official were revealed in the Daily Post.

Mr Finnegan, who once worked in the Labour Party's Millbank communication nerve centre, was told to clear his desk last week and leave his Dale Street office.

Mr Finnegan, assistant executive director for media, has been suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation by the council.

Mr McElhinney has given details of the events that led to the suspension of Mr Finnegan to council chief executive Sir David Henshaw.

The letter, marked "strictly private and confidential" has been circulated to all 90 city councillors.

The executive director said his letter was an appropriate response to challenging the "wholly inaccurate press speculation".

Mr McElhinney says in the letter there was a routine value-for-money review of the department headed by Mr Finnegan as part of a 2005/06 audit plan.

"As part of this routine review a number of issues were raised that were of concern to Audit.

"Audit (the council's internal audit section), in line with established procedure, recommended that the officer concerned be suspended to allow a full investigation to take place.

This course of action is standard practice whilst an investigation of this nature takes proceeds. I would stress that this is not linked in any way to any form of disciplinary process."

Mr McElhinney added that he made it implicitly clear that the process is in no way linked to any other personnel issues that may have been speculated upon or intimated by the local press.

This is a reference to the story which stated the Daily Post's understanding that there had been tensions between Mr Finnegan and Sir David since the newspaper revealed that the chief executive was to leave his post because the council had refused to pay an extra ?200,000 into his pension fund. Mr McElhinney expressed his disappointment that the matter had been passed to the media.

"I feel this incident should be investigated and the source of this information to the press established."

Mr Finnegan has not commented on his suspension. The Daily Post's original story revealed that Mr Finnegan had been ordered to clear his desk after being called into a meeting with Mr McElhinney.

The media chief also had to hand over his mobile phone and council security pass, as well as his personal hand-held computer.

He was then told to leave the Dale Street building.

The city council has refused to discuss the matter, insisting it does not comment on personnel issues.