Tees Valley Mayor Lord Ben Houchen can’t find anyone suitable to take on the top legal and finance jobs at his beleaguered Combined Authority (TVCA) and is having to keep the current interim appointees in place until at least September.
TVCA is legally and constitutionally required to have chief legal (monitoring) and chief finance and resources officers, yet has been without both since the post-holders departed abruptly last summer.
Without filling the posts with permanent appointees it will be virtually impossible for TVCA to free itself from the best value notice (BVN) that the government imposed on it last April and has recently renewed. That means no chance of progressing its devolution path and accessing more funding in the same way that the North East Combined Authority (NECA) and others are doing.
Yet a two-month recruitment process to fill the two posts has failed to come up with anyone suitable, even with the aid of public sector recruitment specialists. None of those interviewed for both posts were “appointable”, the TVCA cabinet will be told on 24 April.
“Imperative…critical”
A report by Tom Bryant, chief executive and the only permanent statutory officer currently at TVCA, is peppered with warnings of how vital it is to find the right people.
“It is clearly imperative that the permanent appointments for both roles have the required experience and expertise to ensure that the combined authority continues to embed the necessary improvements. It was concluded that none of the candidates satisfied these requirements,” he says.
“The failure to recruit a permanent chief legal & monitoring officer or finance & resources director clearly presents a risk in terms of the on-going stability of the organisation. The extension of the existing interim arrangements mitigates this risk in the short-term. The chief executive is continuing to work with [the recruitment specialists] informally, and exploring other opportunities, to try and identify potential permanent candidates…
“The proposal around extending the interim arrangements and continuing to try and identify permanent candidates is critical in terms of continuing the improvement around governance and finance in response to both the BVN and statutory letter from the external auditor (EY).”
Among collateral damage from the failure to appoint: “TVCA is required to appoint independent persons to support the monitoring officer and to assist with ensuring high ethical standards.”
Comment
It is hardly surprising that public servants with the qualifications to fill these important posts are not queuing up to fill them. In the past three years TVCA has been linked with corruption in the House of Commons (unsubtantiated), severely criticised in the independent Tees Valley Review, hammered in the media, been on the receiving end of a statutory letter from its external auditor and served with a BVN (now renewed) by the government. No wonder if senior people don’t want to touch it with a barge pole.
