A spate of long term absences, coupled with a large number of vacancies had already depleted staffing levels and when the Head of Financial Services departed on the 7 January 2004, West Lindsey District Council in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire still had further work to do to produce its Budget for 2004/05 and deliver for External Audit, the Statement of Accounts for 2002/03, which needed to be represented following a number of material uncertainties about the integrity of some of the figures.
Public Sector Consultants put in a team to close the accounts and West Lindsey’s published Statement of Accounts for 2002/03 refers to the fact that most of the key posts, within the Financial Services Section are being resourced by specialist Local Government finance staff from Public Sector Consultants. This has been essential in order to provide the necessary stability and confidence in the financial functions. Henry Jones, Public Sector Consultants’ Divisional Manager praised the team saying “I am proud of the skills and dedication of all the consultants at West Lindsey”. In addition, the Statement of Accounts for 2003/04 was delivered to the Resourcing Committee on 26 August and was approved by the Council, in accordance with the Accounts and Audit regulations 2003.
Sue Rawlins, Chair of Resources said, “All of our members were thrilled by the results achieved by Henry and his team. Our thanks have been recorded in the committee minutes and of course, shared with the Company’s representatives on site and in Chesterfield.”
Daren Turner, new Head of Financial Services at West Lindsey said “Within a few days of arriving, it was obvious that Public Sector Consultants were fully in control of the situation. This gave me a great deal of confidence in our ability to deliver improvement”.
