The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7352 p693
4 June 2005

Society summary

AGM calls for scrutiny committee

The annual general meeting of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has called for the establishment of a small group of members to prepare an annual report on the Society’s activities.

Proposing that “this meeting urges the incoming Council to establish, preferably by election, a small group of members to consider the activities of the Society and to publish an annual report thereon,” past president John Balmford said that since 1841 the Society had had five elected honorary auditors to ensure honesty and probity in its finances.

In recent years, the honorary auditors had delved deeply into the accounts. They had not always confined their questions strictly to financial matters but had asked questions they believed members of the Society would like to ask if given the opportunity.

With the employment of non-pharmacists in many senior positions, the membership had not been well-informed about deliberations of the Council, Mr Balmford stated.

Last year, when it was known that the position of honorary auditor was to be discontinued, Mr Balmford had received a letter from the Secretary and Registrar that said: “The Council feels that it is essential to ensure that members do continue to contribute to the Council’s guardianship role in the future.”

Mr Balmford said that the proposed group would assist the Council in much the same way as the honorary auditors had done. It should have easy access to information regarding activities of the Council.

Seconding, Ian Caldwell, also a past president, said that the Society’s membership included experts in management, education, law, organisation and finance, as well as a whole range of practice matters. The intent of the motion was to make use of this expertise to scrutinise the Society’s policies and activities and tell the membership about them.

The President said that he supported the concept of custodianship, which would be performed by a small group ideally elected from the Society’s fellows.

Responding to Mr Balmford’s comment about non-pharmacists in senior Society posts, Rob Darracott, director of strategic and corporate development, said that 90 of the 284 staff were pharmacists. That was one of the highest concentrations of pharmacists in the country.