It is with some hesitation that I question CIPFA luminary Philip Sellers’ comments on the status and position of local government finance directors in today’s bleak economic environment.
What I glean from the letter is that because things are currently looking a bit tricky from the financial perspective, due to the intended attack on the public sector by the Demolition (er … Coalition), finance directors should come to the fore.
I’m disappointed with the suggestion that finance directors must be given more credence when the services we value are dismantled than when the provision of those very same services were in the ascendancy.
When things were ‘on the way up’, a fair number of our fellow finance directors chose to deposit vast sums of local authority funds in Icelandic banks; allowed spending on consultancy fees and agency staff to proliferate; and did so while happily pocketing massively inflated salaries.
We do have a few gifted finance directors with the capacity to lead, but there are many more from other professions and managerial backgrounds with the necessary credentials.
