Finance appointments, Sandwell insources finance, LGPS equity returns, Edinburgh finance officer jailed

Councils appoint finance chiefs
Aberdeen City Council has appointed Steve Whyte as its new of head of finance, subject to pre-employment checks. Whyte has been promoted from his current job as chief accountant at the council, and has been acting head of finance since early summer. Steve has worked with the city council since it was formed in 1996. Separately, Bristol City Council has appointed its finance service director Mark Taylor to the role of section 151 officer.

Sandwell insources finance and communications
Sandwell Council will end its outsourcing contract with BT by March, a move the council estimates will save up to £4.5 million a year from April 2016. The Transform Sandwell deal was signed in 2007, and saw the council pay £15 million a year to BT for the management of services including finance, customer contact and communication. The decision means that the council is leaving the contract nine years early. Last month, Suffolk County Council announced it would also be insourcing services from an outsourced BT contract to save money.

Council pension schemes outperform corporates
UK council pension schemes made returns of 15 per cent last year compared to only 9 per cent made by corporate schemes, thanks to big investments in equities, according to new data. The research, published by State Street Investment Analytics and consulting firm Mercer found that councils have an average equity weighting of 63 per cent, compared to 38 per cent of private sector schemes. The report said that the higher rate for local authority schemes was due to them being open to new members, producing cash inflows.

Edinburgh financed officer jailed
A former finance officer at City of Edinburgh Council has been jailed for 12 months for embezzling £123,000 from the authority. John Warne diverted the money from the cash reclaimed from HMRC during July 2008 and May 2010, spending it on classic cars, home improvements, long holidays and mortgage payments on buy-to-let properties he owned. The sums only came to light after Warne had taken early retirement from the council, and he has now repaid the embezzled cash.

Parking charge surpluses on the rise
More than 300 out of the 353 English councils running parking operations made a profit last financial year, according to a new report. The figures, compiled by the RAC Foundation, also found that overall, councils generated a surplus of £594 million from the charges during 2012/13, up from £565 million on the previous year. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea made the highest surplus – £39.7 million. Cash raised from parking charges can only be spent by councils on transport schemes.