Inverclyde Council has not yet been able to appoint a permanent chief financial officer after carrying out interviews for the post.
The long-serving Alan Puckrin retired from the role in April after almost four decades at the council, with Angela Edmiston, a finance manager at the local authority, taking over on a temporary basis.
But a recruitment process has not yielded the intended result and a market supplement has been proposed to enhance the salary.
A report, which will be considered at the policy and resources committee next Tuesday, explained: “Following the intimation of the retiral of the chief financial officer recruitment activity has been progressed, however, following interviews no appointment has been made.
“An interim chief financial officer has been appointed pending the appointment of a permanent postholder.
“The current salary for the chief financial officer post is £104,801 (including statutory role allowance).
“Benchmarking has been undertaken with other local authorities.
“Whilst there are limited direct comparators due to the variety of remits that chief financial officers undertake there is evidence that other local authority areas pay a higher rate for a similar role.
“Based on this research it is proposed that a market supplement is added to the Inverclyde chief financial officer post which would increase the salary to £113,000.
“This is suggested as a proportionate increase which would bring the Inverclyde post salary level closer to other areas with a similar post.
“This would include the salary plus allowance for undertaking a statutory post, as well as the market supplement.
“As Inverclyde Council does not have an existing market supplement policy and this is not specified within the scheme of delegation for officers then committee approval is required.”
Providing approval is secured from elected members at the meeting next week, a further recruitment exercise will be undertaken.
According to the report, there will be consideration of an agency who can support this work, with additional promotion of the job carried out.
