Somerset Council has been forced to appoint its third Interim Chief Finance Officer (CFO) in less than a year, after the Liberal Democrat administration failed to secure a permanent appointment. The latest interim hire will cost taxpayers £270,000 for just nine months - £120,000 over budget - with the overspend being plugged by selling off council assets through the capitalisation directive.
The new CFO takes over on 1 July 2025, becoming the third person to hold the critical Section 151 role in under 12 months. The previous permanent CFO took redundancy in August 2024, receiving a £75,000 payout and £447,000 in employer pension contributions.
Despite assurances, the Liberal Democrat administration did not issue a recruitment advert for a permanent CFO until January 2025, months after claiming the process was “imminent” - a delay now costing the council and residents dearly.
Speaking at the Full Council meeting, Cllr Diogo Rodrigues, Leader of the Conservative Opposition, welcomed the interim appointment but criticised the administration’s poor planning, saying, “I sat on the interview panel and have confidence in the interim CFO, so there’s no issue with the appointment itself. But what we’re seeing is the price of Liberal Democrat indecision."
He added, "We were told back in the autumn that recruitment would begin promptly - yet nothing was advertised until January. Anyone could see we were never going to get a permanent CFO in place by April, and now we’re left with a £120,000 cost to explain.”
Cllr Rodrigues also questioned how this extra cost would be funded, warning that council finances were already under serious strain.
In response, Chief Executive Duncan Sharkey said preparations for recruitment had begun in the autumn but confirmed the advert only went live in December or January. He acknowledged that while earlier recruitment might have improved the timeline, securing a suitable candidate by April would still have been uncertain. He confirmed the £120,000 shortfall would be met using the capitalisation directive. “There is capacity within the capitalisation direction to fund this cost,” Mr Sharkey said, adding that the Council is working to avoid drawing on its reserves where possible.
Cllr Rodrigues said that the administration needed to 'get a grip', “The financial emergency Somerset faces demands competence. This delay has wasted public money and added to the instability in the Council’s leadership team. The Liberal Democrat administration needs to get a grip - and quickly.”
Somerset Council remains under significant financial pressure and has previously issued a formal warning that it is at risk of issuing a Section 114 notice—effectively a declaration of bankruptcy—if its financial position does not improve.