Council leader slates ALMO spending
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The leader of Sheffield Council has criticised the authority’s arm’s-length management organisation for spending up to £17,000 recruiting a new chairman.
Council leader Paul Scriven hit out at his own authority’s ALMO, Sheffield Homes, for spending the cash on recruitment consultants and advertising for the post of chairman - which comes with a £10,000 package.
He told a local newspaper recruitment consultants were not normally used for a £10,000 post. ‘In the light of Sheffield Homes’ financial position, I find this decision astonishing. It seems a total waste of money,’ he said.
The ALMO is making 62 people redundant because of cuts in government funding.
Jose Derrick, vice chair of the ALMO board, said the process had to be run independently.
‘The process must be rigorous, fair and transparent and we want as many people as possible to have the opportunity to apply,’ she said.
‘To ensure this, we have appointed an independent agency to manage the recruitment process.’
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Readers' comments (4)
anton | 18/02/2009 2:34 pm
You can achieve accountability, transparency for alot less then £17K. The fact that this is public money they should at least be held to account by opening their books and detailing the procurement process into the recruitment of the chairperson.
What a waste of money, ALMO paying a remuneration fee for a Chairperson what does the Chairperson have in common with the residents, very little do they live in council a property. I doubt it
The best they could have done was to offer training to residents so that they too could qualify in applying to become a chairperson, just as they do with the board membership.
£17k - Money wasted given the economic downturn!
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Phil | 18/02/2009 10:02 pm
Not even close anton - many ALMO chairs ARE residents or leaseholders, both paid and unpaid.
If the process had been carried out by the Board, many residents would (rightly in my view) have declared 'Foul' as there is no way they could have been sure it was fair and transparent.
Sheffield is one of the larger ALMOs and in the current economic climate you would want to be sure that the person at the 'helm' so to speak knows what they are doing.
I find it incredible that the leader of the ALMO's own host council should speak out publically like this. I wonder if his own 'appointment' to Leader was as open and transparent as this process will be??
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halcho | 19/02/2009 8:19 am
Anton, would you not want someone qualified at the helm to make sure that the ALMO is running smoothly? Also how long would it take to train a person to do this job?
At the end of the day, the Chairperson will be overseeing one of the largest ALmo's in the country with a huge investment budget to regenerate homes. I certainly for one, woud want to know that this person is capable of overseeing this process and that they have a proven track record in the field.
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Jimmy | 19/02/2009 7:38 pm
Isn't the real issue here the fact that once again a council has been over-generous with tax payer's money? I use Recruitment agencies all the time for various levels of vacancy and would roll around laughing if they produced a bill for £17K. It just proves to me that spending someone else's money causes you to take it for granted. Would they have paid the £17K if they were running their own business? - I think not!
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