NEWPORT council has paid out more than £25,000 on searching for a new chief executive – with an appointment still to be made.

The city council has been looking for a permanent top boss since the former chief, Will Godfrey, left in October.

Sheila Davies, who was appointed as interim chief executive, resigned last month and ruled herself out of the running for the permanent job, calling it an “expensive process” with a “pre-determined outcome.”

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And now a Freedom of Information request, submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, shows the council paid out £25,803 up to March 22 on recruitment costs for the role.

The recruitment process has been paused due to coronavirus and an appointment has yet to be made.

Cllr Carmel Townsend, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrats group, said: “This remains a ludicrous figure, for a recruitment process that looks like it was pre-determined all along.

“To date, there has been no appointment, no clarity on the process, and no scrutiny.”

Conservative group leader, Cllr Matthew Evans, said he supported the council getting independent, expert advice for the authority’s top job – but said he was ‘surprised’ costs were so high.

“I fully support the concept (of getting expert advice) but it does seem an excessive amount of money and that won’t be the final bill because we have not finished the process yet,” he said.

Newport City Council has been asked to clarify what the costs relate to.

The selection process for the role is carried out by a cross-party panel of councillors, supported by “external specialists” in the assessment of applicants.

The council previously said recruitment for the post is being carried out “through an open, transparent and fair process.”

Following shortlisting and the final selection process, full council is required to ratify the decision on the appointment.

The authority said last month that due to the coronavirus crisis, this is not expected to take place until late June.

A spokesman for the council said: “As the recruitment process for the chief executive has not been completed it would be inappropriate to comment further.”