An academy chain has been reprimanded for paying thousands of pounds to put up its chief executive for 78 nights in a four star hotel.

An Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) investigation into the Rodillian Multi-Academy Trust, Wakefield, was prompted by allegations made in February 2017.

The allegations claimed that the hotel stays happened “several nights a week” even though chief executive and accounting officer (AO) Andy Goulty lived within travelling distance of all the schools within the trust.

The ESFA’s report has found that the trust, which sponsors four secondary schools, had reimbursed Mr Goulty £7,827 for 78 nights, over nearly nine months, at a hotel close to the Rodillian Academy, “despite there being no approved travel and subsistence policy in operation across the trust”.

In an interview, the previous chair of the trust said this was allowed “due to the AO working late to support the academies in the trust”, and that “this was discussed informally”.

However, the ESFA said it was not shown any documents proving this was approved by the full board of the academy trust, or recording the justification to show it was a good use of public funds.

‘Value for money’

The ESFA review identified “a number of significant failings and weaknesses in governance arrangements” that breached the Academies Financial Handbook.

It said the trust entered into a rental agreement on a flat for the chief executive at an annual cost of £10,500, plus £240 administration costs, following the hotel stays.

The EFSA found that this was non-contractual, and suggests that the trust should have sought approval first.

According to the report, the trust’s chair said this would be cheaper than covering the cost of hotel stays. But “no evidence was provided that trustees had evaluated whether the requirement to cover such costs was warranted or even needed, based on the initial rationale for doing so”.

In response, Rodillian told Tes: “There has been £18,000 in accommodation costs for the executive headteacher over a three-year period, 2014-17.

“Over this same period of time, we are able to confirm that he has generated in excess of half a million pounds from school improvement partnerships and leadership support work. We view this outlay as value for money for the trust and the children within our academies.

“We would like to make it clear that public money, allocated to students of the RMAT schools, was not used to fund the executive headteachers accommodation.”

Racing trip

Mr Goulty said the money for his accommodation “was generated from the school improvement partnerships and leadership support work”.

The report also said the trust had paid for train tickets worth £362.60 for two members of the trust’s senior management team to attend Cheltenham races, hosted by one of the trust’s suppliers.

It said this spending had not been authorised because the costs were supposed to be reimbursed by the supplier, but the trust “has been unable to evidence that the expenditure has been reimbursed”.

Mr Goulty told Tes the costs of the train tickets “have been fully reimbursed”.

The report also raises concerns about the trust’s “deteriorating financial position”.

It says interviews with trustees indicated the finance committee only met once during 2015-16 “due to trustees lacking faith in the financial reports being presented to them”.

It also says that since the trust was incorporated, it “has not had an audit committee, or a committee that fulfils the functions of an audit committee”.

Improvements needed

The report, published this afternoon, also says there is no evidence that a procurement exercise was undertaken for a five-year contract worth £1.45 million to provide alternative and vocational opportunities in education for students, who may otherwise have been excluded from mainstream provision.

It adds: “A number of improvements are required to strengthen financial management and governance arrangements at the trust and to ensure compliance with the regulatory framework.”

It calls for the issues identified in the report to be “addressed urgently to ensure internal control arrangements within the trust are operating effectively and assure the safeguarding of public funds”.

In a statement, the trust said: “Findings from the review were mainly of a historic nature and, in collaboration with the ESFA, an action plan has been implemented and, for the most part, completed to support future developments of our growing organisation.”

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