03 July 2006

Hung out to dry

When the civil service of the Scottish Executive decides to put the boot in, it does not believe in half measures. The Herald reports:
"THE head of human resources for the Scottish Executive who is currently suspended over allegations of misconduct, was hired despite having been sacked for bullying from a previous post.
Susan Beevers lost her job with a private firm in Nottingham after allegations of staff harassment and intimidation in late 2002, and failed with a claim of unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal.
However, senior officials at the executive were not aware of that when she was appointed to her job in Edinburgh, with ultimate responsibility for personnel matters for the executive's 4500 civil servants.
Since then, she has been in charge of a multi-million-pound computer project which is in deep trouble – behind time, over budget and subject to a review which could result in it being scrapped.

The Scotsman has the same story here.

It seems clear that the Executive intends to make the unfortunate Ms Beevers a scapegoat and, to this end, is selectively leaking to the press. One is bound to ask, however, who appointed her? Who failed to check out her references? Who thought that her experience of running a seven-strong HR team in the private sector was sufficient to qualify her for running the Executive's HR team?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Heck she was brought in from the private sector to do some big change and cut out some of the slack and overspend.

The size of the department has reduced by 50%.

You don't do that without making enemies.