Birmingham City Council has appointed Fiona Greenway as its new interim section 151 officer amid soaring implementation costs and failures of an IT and HR contract.
Greenway replaces Becky Hellard, who joined Birmingham City Council as the interim director for finance and governance in October 2019. She was later appointed to the permanent role of strategic director of council management in September 2021.
At a meeting of the full council last week, Ian Ward, Birmingham’s leader, confirmed that Hellard is no longer the current section 151 officer at the authority, however the council has refused to comment on her current employment status.
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: “We would not discuss matters relating to any individual employees. Fiona Greenway is currently our section 151 officer.”
Room151 contacted Hellard for a comment, however she did not respond by the time of publication.
Almost £20m IT contract overspend
The news of Hellard’s departure from her role at Birmingham comes as Ward also revealed that the authority has brought in external consultants from PWC and KPMG to help resolve implementation issues of an IT and HR contract with Oracle.
The contract between Birmingham City Council and database management company Oracle was expected to go live in April 2020 and aimed to streamline the authority’s payments across its public services.
However, elements of the IT contract have been delayed, this includes the council’s ability to issue invoices to businesses.
According to council documents in March 2022, the overall cost of the implementation phase rose from an estimated £19.9m at the time of the original business case to £38.7m as a result of the delays.
Other issues with the IT contract include security issues preventing users from accessing reporting and complex customisation that is failing.
Ward detailed to members that despite these issues governance over the IT contract’s implementation has been strengthened and external auditors have been brought in to assess the final costs involved.
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‘Action plan’ drawn up
A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said: “Last year, the council went live with a new IT system to improve its internal functions relating to financial management and human resources.
“Although it is not unusual for such implementations to encounter difficulties, it is clear the transition to the new solution has been particularly challenging – but, importantly, the issues have not affected front-line services for the people of Birmingham.
“There have been notable successes over the last year. For example, the council has made payments to over half a million suppliers since April 2022, with a value of £2.5bn using the new system. However, some elements still require further work to resolve impacts upon day-to-day operations in back-office areas such as finance and HR.
“To resolve all issues, an action plan has been drawn up, governance strengthened, and a new task force is being set up, which will be chaired by the chief executive, with progress overseen directly by the leader of the council.
“In addition, the council is also actively engaging with its external auditors, who have offered to independently review the plans to ensure the implementation of the system is successfully completed.”
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