Poor planning, inexperienced management, and weak financial controls contributed to a \u00c2\u00a3288,000 deficit for the 2008 Lambeth Conference, a report released last week by the Archbishops’ Council and the Church Commissioners has concluded.<\/p>\n
The management team, conference structure and business practices were not up to the job, the report found, stating that the \u201carrangements in place for the 2008 conference were less robust than they needed to be.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
The conference’s opaque management structure had left no one in charge, with the result that there had been a \u201cdisconnect between design on the one hand, and capacity and execution on the other.\u201d\u009d The lack of clear lines of authority had led to cost overruns, with the financial team \u201cnot always aware\u201d\u009d of the commitments made by conference management staff. Two examples cited by the report were the \u201cfailure to recognise a commitment for expenditure of \u00c2\u00a3411,000 on the Big Top\u201d\u009d the blue tent that served as the principle venue for conference meetings, and IT support.<\/p>\n