A compaint has been lodged with the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales against a senior councillor, Powys County Council has confirmed.

The authority made the complaint against Plaid Cymru group leader, Cllr Elwyn Vaughan.

Cllr Vaughan is also the Plaid Cymru candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr seat at the next General Election.

The complaint follows criticism over how the council handled a whistleblower allegation of wrongdoing at the North Powys Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) in Newtown.

In December, media outlet Nation Cymru reported that the council has been accused of seeking to cover up irregular purchases made by a former headteacher at the PRU back in 2021.

A whistleblower had reported the unusual purchases to the council.

It had been alleged that the former headteacher, had used a council credit card to buy an assortment of work tools.

On being told in September 2022 that no evidence of fraud could be found the whistleblower then took their concerns to Audit Wales.

The problem then became known to Plaid Cymru group leader, Cllr Elwyn Vaughan, who raised concerns about the handling of the complaint with the council’s chief executive Emma Palmer.

Under the council’s process of asking questions at anytime Cllr Vaughan has posed a series of questions about the problems at the PRU with the Liberal Democrat cabinet member for education, Cllr Pete Roberts.

The allegation is that Cllr Vaughan brought the authority into disrepute by disclosing confidential information.

Cllr Vaughan said: “All I have done is support a whistleblower and raise concerns about the misuse of public funds.

“It’s very sad but nothing more than an attempt to silence those that scrutinise and seek transparency for Powys ratepayers.”

A spokesperson for Powys County Council said: “We can confirm that the Ombudsman is investigating a complaint.”

The council has also been asked several times why the allegations against the former headteacher were not reported to Dyfed-Powys Police at the tome

A council spokesman explained: “An internal investigation into the allegations was carried out by the council’s anti-fraud team which found no evidence to support claims that theft or fraud had taken place.

“Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding between the council and Dyfed-Powys Police, the council’s own fraud investigators must secure evidence of criminal activities having taken place prior to referring a case to the police force’s economic crime team.”

The issues at the Newtown PRU were brought up at a meeting of the council’s Governance and Audit committee in January.

At that meeting several committee members had wanted to use the whistleblowing affair at the PRU as a case study with “lessons learned” presented back to the committee.

However, this was shut down by Ms Palmer who wanted to make it “very clear” that they could have their say on whistleblowing strategy and policy but not individual cases.

A review of the council’s whistleblowing policy is underway.

The North Powys PRU is one of two specialist units in the county that are under thread of closure due to Powys County Council cutbacks.

The other PRU is in Brecon.

Their future is a hot topic because proposals to close a PRU in Powys to save £600,000 over two years are part of this year’s council budget.

The idea emerged in January when the draft budget papers were first published.

The lack of detail of the proposal was criticised at a scrutiny meeting ahead of all budget proposal for 2024/2025 budget being agreed at a meeting in February by a slim margin.

Part of the budget includes the to make £10.652 million in cuts, savings, and income generation to balance the books.

Remodelling PRUs is estimated to save the council £325,555 this year and £251,285 next year.