Jacquie McGeachie - post #4

www.despair.com ( no despair in Barnet of course )

Mr Mustard made a small error yesterday and muddled up a 2 and a 3 in his head and thought that we had only had the pleasure of the company of the interim ( for now ) Assistant Director for Human Resources for 2 years when the correct answer is 3. Mr Mustard now realises that we are in the year 2012 but in his own defence he would like to point out that an interim manager normally arrives, does a cracking job in a short time and then leaves with a permanent employee taking over a well run ship so the question of 2 years or 3 should not arise. However, we are in Barnet where management is done differently and interims hang around seemingly for ever like a bad smell.

Let us take a look at the Consultancy Agreement

Consultancy Agreement - Jacquie McGeachie HR Consulting Limited

The sharp eyed reader will have noticed that the Agreement is dated 22 February 2010 but "employment" started in January 2009 and the Agreement never actually got signed until 5 May 2010. Is there an earlier Agreement? No, is the gist of the Freedom of Information response which read as follows:

I can confirm that the Council does not hold a previous copy of the contract with Jacquie McGeachie HR Consulting Ltd

Current contractual arrangements are now tri-partite, probably, the situation is still a bit murky. The arrangement with Hays seems to be that the contractor, in this case Jacquie McGeachie HR Consulting Ltd invoices Hays for the work done by the "consultant" Jacquie McGeachie and then Hays invoices the council. 

Mr Mustard has asked which days Mrs McGeachie billed for in November 2011 and the answer was basically that the council didn't know as the information is with Hays. Mr Mustard was most unamused by this response as the council, if it truly doesn't know, is exhibiting an astonishing lack of financial control. Mr Mustard has asked for the FOI answer to be done again with a little more thought this time.

As is often the case the paperwork surrounding this procurement is deficient.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard