Pictured above: Iain Johnstone

The lead partner of Black Country chartered accountants CK has slammed alleged proposals to outsource IT and finance jobs from the Midlands, saying quality is being sacrificed for short term monetary gain.

Plans revealed today that Birmingham City Council is to export over a hundred IT, human resources, payroll and finance jobs to India sends entirely the wrong message to the local business community, says Iain Johnstone.

He commented: "We've seen a number of businesses outsourcing IT operations to the Far East over the recent years. Legal and accountancy firms have also followed suit with this strategy to maximise profits. In particular accountancy firms have outsourced the processing of self assessment tax returns overseas to take advantage of cheaper labour costs. 

"As a practice, we have taken a positive decision to never outsource any of our services merely to obtain cheaper costs in India or elsewhere.  

"Primarily we believe that transferring work and jobs out of this region is fundamentally wrong.

"We have particular concerns over security issues, where professional organisations allow overseas parties access to confidential, personal and financial information.

"We employ key staff to support our own IT functions and many of our own client systems, and we operate our own dedicated help lines.

"We firmly believe quality is more important than cost and that successful organisations operate by people communicating with each other.

"We believe this region can survive the current problems and prosper by investing in its people and the local area.

"The future of the region very much depends on the ability and quality of its workforce, and with this in mind we don't expect to see the council moving vital jobs overseas. This could have a detrimental effect on the region's long-term economic recovery."

CK is an established accountancy firm with over 100 years experience in the West Midlands.