2The appointment process
3.The Committee has had a role in the recruitment process for the new Chief Commissioner, principally through the Chair of the Sub-Committee, Paul Scully, who sat on the interview panel. Of the candidates invited for interview, three were deemed appointable. The Secretary of State then selected Dr Tamsyn Barton as her preferred candidate, and provided the Chair privately with notice of her decision. In reaching this decision, the Secretary of State took account of the scores obtained by each candidate at interview: Dr Barton was the highest-scoring candidate.
4.When the current Chief Commissioner was recruited, the scores awarded by the interview panel were not shared with the Secretary of State. The new process whereby scores are shared stemmed from a recommendation by our predecessor Committee.1
5.The present recruitment process for ICAI’s Chief Commissioner represents an improvement on previous iterations. We recommend that the new recruitment process – in which scores awarded by the interview panel are shared with the Secretary of State, and in which the Secretary of State provides the Chair of this Committee with notice of the name of her preferred candidate – be used again when the next Chief Commissioner is recruited.
6.Once Dr Barton had been selected as the Secretary of State’s preferred candidate, she appeared before this Committee for a pre-appointment hearing. Paul Scully absented himself from this hearing to avoid any perceived conflict of interest. We questioned Dr Barton on her experience, her expertise, and her vision for ICAI. We were very impressed with Dr Tamsyn Barton’s performance in her pre-appointment hearing, and are pleased to endorse her appointment as the next Chief Commissioner of ICAI.
1 International Development Committee, Seventh Report of Session 2014–15, Appointment of the Chief Commissioner of the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, HC 741, para 15
Published: 14 September 2018