Clause 25 - Budget calculations: report on robustness of estimates etc
Local Government Bill
4:00 pm
Mr Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (Cotswold, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 108, in
clause 25, page 10, line 42, leave out 'the' and insert 'a properly qualified'.
Clause 25 deals with the powers of the chief finance officer. The Government may have got their clauses the wrong way round. Clause 30 refers to the definition of ''chief finance officer'', which is contained in section 114 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, subsection (3) of which says:
''The chief finance officer of a relevant authority shall make a report under this section if it appears to him that the expenditure of the authority incurred . . . in a financial year is likely to exceed the resources''.
From that subsection, one can begin to see that chief finance officers have an important and far-reaching role. Subsection (6) says:
''If the chief finance officer is unable to act owing to absence or illness his duties under subsections (2) and (3) above shall be performed''
by, the subsection continues, a member of his staff.
It is important to consider the training and qualifications of chief finance officers who have such far-reaching powers. They should be properly qualified to exercise their functions. The Minister will probably say that the amendment would be burdensome and unnecessary.