CEREDIGION County Council has finally revealed some details of its controversial £2m contract with Pricewaterhouse Coopers in heavily redacted documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

It was reported by the Cambrian News that the council had now paid PwC almost £2m of taxpayers’ money, more than doubling its spend on the firm in under eight months.

Concerns over the arrangement in place, which sees PwC receive a percentage of savings made by the council even if the saving ‘streams’ are later abandoned, have led some councillors to call for the resignation of Cabinet member Cllr Alun Williams.

The Cambrian News has complained to the Information Commissioner over the council’s repeated refusal to reveal details of its payment arrangement with PwC under the Freedom of Information Act.

Now, the council has provided the Cambrian News with a copy of its contract with PwC under the Public Audit (Wales) Act, which allows residents to inspect its draft statement of accounts for the previous financial year, along with any contracts and receipts.

But the council has chosen to redact large parts of its contract pertaining to how much PwC are paid, which it is entitled to do following a Court of Appeal decision in 2010.

In refusing the Freedom of Information request, Ceredigion County council argued that the information was exempt because it was commercially sensitive and that it has a confidentiality agreement with PwC.

The Cambrian News argued that the information should be disclosed because it was in the public interest to do so.

The Information Commissioner is still dealing with the complaint.