Completed petition End Conflict of Interest in Local Authority Constitution

We, the undersigned, call on the Welsh Government to enforce better code of conduct policies for employees in local authorities. Currently, planning authority officers are able to run private planning consultancy companies at the same time as maintaining their public roles. There is no available resource to invest in policing these private firms, where declared in the necessary forms, to ensure the prevention of fraud and corruption. In the example of planning officers, running private consultancies 'on the side' could potentially facilitate corruption, of which there are many types, generally relating to the abuse of office. This practice needs to be stopped immediately and the constitutions amended to no longer allow this conduct. We demand greater accountability and transparency from our local authorities and standards of conduct in such public roles need to be set higher than the private sector, where this is highly unacceptable.