Institute loses Fear over PSO
ICA?s head of practice regulation not asked to apply for top job, writes Hooman Bassirian
The English ICA?s merger of its regulatory and disciplinary departments has claimed its ?rst casualty, with the resignation of Raymond Fear, head of practice regulation.
Fear?s decision follows last week?s announcement that Matthew Ives, director of professional conduct, is to take temporary charge of the newly formed Professional Standards Of?ce (PSO). It is believed that Fear was not asked to apply for the post.
The PSO, which is to be based in Milton Keynes, was created last year with the planned merger of the Joint Monitoring Unit, the Practice Regulation and the Professional Conduct departments. The move is designed to separate the institute?s regulatory functions from its member services, and to stem public criticism that the institute had a con?ict of interest regulating its members.
The creation of the PSO is expected to cost up to #1.5m in initial outlay for 1997/98, and will involve the transfer of up to 60 staff from Moorgate Place.
Ives? appointment, which lasts until December next year, ends months of uncertainty over who would head the much sought-after post, but any respite will be temporary. Ives will have to ?ght to hang on to his job in 1999, when the institute will advertise the post externally.
Fear, who is known to have been extremely unhappy with the prospect of relocating outside London, will quit the institute next spring, after the Joint Monitoring Unit and the Practice Regulation department move to Milton Keynes.
The institute gave Ives the PSO?s top job after the completion of a strategy review of the institute?s regulatory department carried out by IPF, CIPFA?s consulting arm.
Accountancy Age understands that institute staff are deeply unhappy about relocating and are unsure about the future following the IPF review of their jobs and performance.
Andrew Colquhoun, the institute?s chief executive, admitted that the move could prove unpopular. ?There will be some people who won?t want to relocate. We will try to offer them alternative employment wherever that is possible,? he said.
The PSO is expected to become operational by next spring. The institute expects to save up to #600,000 a year on its property costs, cancelling the initial outlay for the new body by 2001.
