Bolton MP says ‘red flags’ at university should be investigated

A Bolton MP has called for an independent investigation into the financial arrangements of his local university after being “inundated” with allegations that he said highlighted “concerning practices” within the institution.

Phil Brickell, MP for Bolton West, has urged education secretary Bridget Phillipson to step in after allegations surfaced surrounding the University of Greater Manchester, which, he said, seemed to point to a “systematic misuse of public funds”.

The university was the subject of an investigation by local news site, The Mill, which has been raised in the House of Commons by Conservative MP Neil O’Brien, who referred to “attempts to pay huge sums of what is effectively taxpayers’ money to relatives of the university’s managers”, also referring to the involvement of a company based in Casablanca, Morocco.

In a letter to Phillipson – seen by Times Higher Education – Brickell says that the “allegations raised by The Mill are of the most serious kind”.

Brickell says that he had written to the university’s vice-chancellor, George Holmes, with “a number of questions” but had not received a response.

He said that contact from “credible” whistleblowers and anonymous testimony received by his office from current and former employees mirror the allegations published.

“Since the publication of The Mill article, my office has also been inundated with anonymous letters, emails and phone calls highlighting concerning practices within the university,” Brickell writes.

“The contents of The Mill articles are enough to warrant an independent investigation into the university’s financial arrangements.

“The accusations I am receiving from whistleblowers and in anonymous emails and letters reveal what seems to be a systematic misuse of public funds.”

Brickell, a Labour MP who was first elected to Parliament last year, previously worked in financial compliance and anti-corruption and says the case had “raised several red flags”.

“The university is a key institution in Bolton, and it needs to be run in the interests of students and the town at the exclusion of everything else,” he writes. “The allegations published seem to fly in the face of that ethos.”

He said the university – until recently known as the University of Bolton – had a key role to play in the economic growth agenda and “these allegations indicate that some members of the university’s senior leadership do not take this responsibility seriously”.

The university said it had commissioned the accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to “conduct an independent investigation into recent allegations reported in the press relating to the conduct and affairs of senior personnel working for or on behalf of the university”. 

This will be overseen by the university’s audit committee, the statement added, and the institution will not comment further while it is ongoing. 

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com