Halton College was this week ordered to repay Pounds 7.3 million of misappropriated public funds, more than four months after Whistleblowers exclusively revealed that a multimillion pound financial claw-back would be demanded.
The long-awaited inquiry reports by the National Audit Office and Further Education Funding Council into financial mismanagement and alleged fraud at the Widness college were finally published yesterday (April 15).
Regarding misappropriated funds, they found: the Cheshire college claimed money for students who lived in Scotland despite knowing they were ineligible; students attracting funding for up to 60 hours of teaching were taught for far fewer hours; and the college failed to properly check that funding claims reflected student numbers.
Regarding breaches of financial rules, the reports found: several hundreds of thousands of pounds-worth of computers were procured without proper controls or approval; the principal "inappropriately" accepted hospitality from potential suppliers; public money was invested in a commercial venture without proper supervision; a Pounds 260,777 office refurbishment was undertaken in breach of financial regulations; and more than Pounds 30,000 was "inappropriately" spent on etchings, without tenders, by the principalship.
Unnecessary and lavish personal expenditure was also documented. The report found: expensive staff "away days" were not subject to proper controls; public funds were used to pay for "an unacceptable level of personal expenses such as bar bills"; large numbers of expensive foreign trips, with excessive expenses, were made by the principal and vice-principal "out of all proportion to the benefits the college claims to have derived from them"; the principal and deputy had spent nine days short of a whole year out of the college over the past five years; and the use of college credit cards was not properly controlled.
The FEFCE said that suspended principal Martin Jenkins, as accounting officer, did not fulfil his duties to assure "the proper stewardship of public funds". The board, the report said, should "consider his future at the college". The board should also review the position of deputy principal, Jenny Dolphin, as she is "directly implicated in some of the inappropriate activities".
Last month the college announced more than 150 redundancies - a third of its staff.