Angus Council’s chief executive says commissioning independent experts for a review of her top management team will involve a “minimal” spend.
But Kathryn Lindsay couldn’t put a figure on the likely cost when pressed for an answer by councillors.
However she defended the approach, saying it is important Angus knows how other authorities operate at the top tier.
The review was sparked by the retiral of depute chief executive Mark Armstrong this summer.
New political leadership at Angus Council
Mr Armstrong’s departure has been one of several changes at officer and member level.
Former chief social work officer and families director Ms Lindsay succeeded Margo Williamson as chief executive last year.
And this week saw two key moves in the SNP ruling group.
Montrose councillor Bill Duff became council leader after we revealed how former Dundee City Council leader John Alexander was brought in as peacemaker to sort out division in the administration.
And Forfar member Linda Clark was appointed Provost.
The review of the £1m-a-year management team was raised at a full council meeting on Thursday.
Ms Lindsay was also unable to tell councillors when it would be complete.
She said: “There’s no fixed timescale.
“The external support to be very clear is quite minimal.
“It really is just to make sure our scrutiny of our arrangements and benchmarking is absolutely robust.
“Rather than just looking at that ourselves and considering our options we will be asking for a little bit of external support to reflect adequately what’s happening elsewhere in the country.”
The review cost, she said, would come from slippage in the £127,000-a-year deputy chief executive vacancy and other director posts unfilled last year.
“There’s a sufficiency of funding to cover what I anticipate will be reasonably minimal external advice costs.”
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