I write to comment on the news story, “Estates manager convicted of £245,000 fraud” (HEJ – May 2010). I found the headline a little sensationalist, and think that we need to take stock of where the NHS and IHEEM members are as regards qualifications.
Clearly, a fraud was committed when the individual represented himself as holding qualifications when, in fact, he did not, and I do not wish to challenge that. Many of us have worked extremely hard to attain our qualifications, and justly jealously guard the right to use them in our careers. However, whether this amounts to a “£245,000 fraud” is, I think, questionable. The manager was paid the £245,000 over five years for doing the job, not for holding the qualifications. So the question is: was the job undertaken to the required standard? If “yes” (and I suspect it was, given that he was employed for five years), then the fraud is not in the monetary value, but in the breach of trust. Unfortunately, if the answer is “yes”, those of us with qualifications have to ask ourselves what added value we bring to the service as professionally qualified people? Is this a wake-up call in relation to CPD and members’ personal contribution to, and involvement in, professional institutions like IHEEM? Or am I the only one that feels guilty?
Michael Baybutt BSc CEng FIHEEM
Regional operations director,
South East England and Canada, J
ohn Laing Investments
