Attention all CIPFA members.
I am using my public resilience blog to publish CIPFA's responses to the 10 questions which I posed to CIPFA in July 2022 AGM.
This is because the long term financial sustainability of the Institute is at stake here.
It is important that all CIPFA members examine the responses and express their views on them before they review my attached comments on the responses.
I understand that CIPFA will keep these responses on its website for the next three months.
The responses are contained in the following file :
Please read all the questions and responses to form your own views on the future direction and resilience of our Institute.
My comments on the responses are detailed below.
Given that CIPFA has never agreed to publish the independent report on the 2019 £3.7m write down it will be impossible to determine in detail what steps have been taken to tackle the 8 Corporate Governance red flags which have previously been identified.
On the 4th of May this year the CIPFA Council refused to include an item in the AGM agenda to give members a vote on whether the independent report on the write down should be published.
Apparently not one CIPFA Council member supported my proposition!!
These people are supposed to represent your interests and yet they didn't stand with the members they are supposed to represent!
Truly shocking for me as a CIPFA menber
The CEO of CIPFA stated he was opposed to the publication of the Independent Report which means that members cannot be trusted with such information?
This has been a clandestine and secretive process which does CIPFA no favours at all although CIPFA persists in claiming it is open, transparent and inclusive. Unfortunately the facts do not bear this out.
CIPFA has stated that no it has made no material losses in the period from schemes it has been involved with. Materiality is a fluid concept and this means that if we take materiality at say 5% of £26.6m group turnover then substantial losses could still have occurred. We still need to know whether they have or not? This is especially important in the light of the previous write down.
CIPFA has no plans to produce a separate member engagement website which is hugely disappointing. Members need a far bigger say in how the Institute operates and this is clearly the case with the proposed closer working arrangements with the ICAEW where we need constant updating on. The present arrangements for encouraging ordinary member participation are wholly inadequate.
The pension fund deficit elimination strategy needs far more explanation to members as it is a crucial part of the Institute's negative balance sheet position and could have a long term effect on future financial sustainability.
The growth in group operating income and membership has been very low and it will take huge efforts to turn the dial in the right direction. There isn't much detail coming forward on how this might be achieved. Radical change is required to grow the Institute in difficult times and I'm not sure how this will be achieved.
The loss incurred by the subsidiary CIPFA Co Ltd must be reversed but there is little detail of what needs to be done to ensure this is attained.
I do hope that you all take my questions, the attached CIPFA responses and my comments to heart in your evaluation of our Institute's position.
I feel that I'm doing the job of the CIPFA non executives and providing the Institute with a challenge that frankly they should be getting from within the organisation.
I want to end on the fact that not one of the 21 CIPFA Council members wanted to put the discussion of the 2019 write down report on the July 2022 AGM agenda. I could have understood that perhaps some Council members would have voted for my proposition but the fact that not one member voted for it seems a bit North Korean to me.
I don't have much faith that members' interests will be properly served if this continues.
Let's hope CIPFA will flourish but we can't pretend that it will need to undergo radical change in its growth strategy to advance its position.
Comments