17 June (Part 1) - Be prepared!
I have been mildly rebuked for a conscious decision to go
easy on Bexley’s new Chief Executive
and not append a brief biography to his promotion announcement, so I am going to make amends.
The name Paul Thorogood
first appeared here in December 2018 in an entirely innocuous budget report.
Same again three months later.
The negatives began to appear towards the end of the same year when it was
revealed that Mr. Thorogood while in charge of finances at Capita, which manages
Barnet Council, failed to notice that Trishul Shah was
filching away £2 million under Paul’s unsuspecting nose.
In 2013 he moved across to Newham and the oneSource consortium of which Bexley
was a member. In 2017 fraudsters struck there too
and £7·5 million disappeared. CIPFA wrote a report on it but it is no longer on Newham Council’s website. Mr. Thorogood
jumped ship to Bexley where he lost no time in bringing his Barnet second in
command to be his sidekick here too. An appointment which provoked this email in November 2019.
It seems she has been brought in to sort out a sinking ship or possibly sink it as Paul Thorogood has reduced the Council’s reserves,
reduced staffing to a minimum (you no longer see many other Finance Officers at
meetings) and he’s reported nothing of BexleyCo’s failings.
It should be making profits but has the Finance Director reported any of this? If it’s failing to hit
targets has the Director of Finance told elected Members?
Still, he can’t be everywhere. Or can he?
When he [Paul Thorogood] was Head of Finance in Barnet Nickie Morris was just a
Finance Manager. When he rose to be Assistant Director, Nickie filled the gap as
Head of Finance. Now at Bexley Paul Thorogood has become Director and the
vacant post of assistant to the Director has been filled by one Nickie Morris. As a
consultant Nickie Morris must be on more than £10,000 a month. We can only guess
as there was no public advertisement.
It was said that the new CEO insisted on using Capita software while at
oneSource where it was found lacking but despite that thought it would be
good for Bexley. Only the people using it know the truth of that story.
And don’t dare mention
the
Capitalzation Order.