Rob Whiteman has written an absolutely classic piece on the role and status of the finance director, especially those in local government (‘Tough at the top’, May 21–27).
He says: ‘Finance should sit at the top table – very soon it will, without question’ and ‘the director of finance will increasingly be the number two’. But – and it is a big but – I am still waiting for an unequivocal statement from our institute council and for the same clear commitment from the Audit Commission and the Society for Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers.
The CIPFA conference programme ignores the issue, the manifesto goes as far as ‘must be a key member of the leadership team’, the president’s review makes no mention and the annual review has two bland paragraphs.
As Rob Whiteman says, these are the most challenging times for our profession. It surely must be time for the CIPFA council, the Audit Commission and Solace to stop prevaricating and together state what is obvious to the rest of us – that in a local authority, the finance director is number two in the organisational structure, reports direct to the chief executive and is part of the top management team.
Councils should ‘comply’ or ‘explain’ their non-compliance in the audited annual accounts.
Philip Sellers
