Regulator suffers second high profile departure

GISC monitoring head Steve Barrow has left the council, its second high profile departure
in recent months.

Barrow started his new job as head of investigations at the Football Association (FA) on 5 August.

GISC enforcement head Tony Tudor left in April to join the Institute of Financial Services.

A GISC spokeswoman said Barrow's departure was disappointing. "It was inevitable really," she said.

"We're proud that a small organisation like ours successfully recruits good people, but if you look at the turnover of able people everywhere, it's always on the cards they might be approached by a head-hunter."

The spokeswoman said the GISC was in the "final stages" of recruiting a replacement monitoring head.

"Like all roles here, there's evolution and even if Barrow had stayed, his role would have been developing all the time.

"But we will carry forward the work in which he has already laid the foundations," she said.

Critics have attacked the GISC's monitoring programme in the past, claiming budget cuts had rendered the work by its contracted monitors ineffectual.

The GISC contracts teams at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and Ernst & Young to undertake monitoring across the UK.

PWC's team will undergo a shake-up over the coming months.

PWC's head of monitoring Ray Stibbard will retire on 31 August after 43 years in the industry.

He will be replaced from within his team.PWC has also advertised for another monitor.

"We've had a bit of a restructure in the unit and need to bolster the numbers," Stibbard said.

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