Castle Point Borough Council paid out £143,000 to the estate of it's late chief executive, a TaxPayers' Alliance investigation revealed. The unusual payment came to light after the council's auditors refused to sign off the council's audits.
Speaking to The Echo, which published the findings, our head of campaigns Elliot Keck said:
"Castle Point Council have serious questions to answer regarding the nature of this payment.
"This looks to be a highly unusual use of taxpayers' money, with a six figure sum paid out based on seemingly spurious grounds with little transparency.
"The council needs to be completely open about how, when and why this payment was made and the justification behind it."