The staff member involved in the gun incident is "alleged to have engaged with youths with a gun/weapon brought into Llantwit Youth centre". That person received a final written warning for the incident in January, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed.

 

The council dismissed five staff during the 12-month period – three of whom were employed in the council’s Learning and Skills department, which manages the Vale’s schools, youth services, libraries and learning centres. 

 

One of them was fired due to “financial irregularities”, and another one was fired because of unauthorised absences. A third staff member, from the resources department, went “AWOL” and claimed fraudulent pay for hours that they were not actually in work for. 

 

Vale of Glamorgan Council has given no further details of the incidents involving a gun or the financial irregularities.

 

But a council spokesman said: "The council has strict and comprehensive guidelines regarding staff conduct as set out in its disciplinary procedure.

 

“Information relating to individual cases is confidential. Each is considered in line with this disciplinary procedure and the appropriate action taken.”

 

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If the Vale of Glamorgan Council had been using a clocking terminal, then they would have detected the staff member who was claiming fraudulently for time she hadn’t spent at work. 

 

A physical clocking terminal is suitable for most workplaces with staff who remain in the building for all or most of their working day. It ensures that the employees are physically present. This data is recorded in the central WinTA.NET system. The whole process is much more secure and trustworthy than self-reporting paper timesheets, which we so often see leading to fraud like this.

 

Our self-service module allows employees to see their own clocking timesheets so misunderstandings about potential hours vs worked hours would not arise and fraud would be undeniable. 

 

There are two main ways of clocking in and out using the Time and Attendance Wales workplace management system. 

 

The first is using contactless proximity smart cards. These are about the size of a credit card (55mm x 85mm x 2.2mm) and are thin and flexible enough to be carried in your wallet. The radio technology means that you don’t even have to take them out of the wallet again to scan in!

 

The most secure and fraud-resistant clocking method we offer is using biometrics. The types that we offer are finger scanners and hand scanners. 

 

Neither of these scanners store prints, as that is an unnecessary use of personal information. In the finger scanner, the print patterns are converted into a code through a secure algorithm, which is then stored on a database for future comparison and authentication. The hand scanner stores the geometry, its size and shape of the hand.