A major multi-academy trust is investigating whether payments made to members of staff have followed Department for Education rules.
The academy chain E-ACT is also reviewing the procurement processes for a contract it has entered into over concerns about whether value for money was obtained.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) - the arm of the DfE responsible for oversight of academy finances - has been made aware that the trust is currently reviewing both the staff payments and the contract.
The matter is being looked at by external professional advisers.
The concerns are revealed in the trust’s latest annual company accounts for the academic year ending August 2021.
The accounts do not reveal the sums of money involved or provide any more detail about what the payments were for or what the contract relates to.
Academy trust investigates contract and staff payments
The report says: “Following the year end, two items have come to light that are being further considered by external professional advisers on behalf of trustees.
“The academy trust has identified payments made to staff members which cannot yet be determined as in line with DfE and ESFA requirements.
“The academy trust has also identified a contract which needs further consideration of the procurement processes used to ensure value for money was obtained for E-ACT.
“The academy trust continues to review the extent to which procedures were complied with in relation to these transactions. The ESFA has been notified and of the ongoing and anticipated timescales.
“No formal conclusions have been drawn at this stage but the issues under review are not deemed to be material in the context of the financial results portrayed by these financial statements.”
The report says that during 2020-21, E-ACT ran 28 academies across the country in London, the Midlands, the North and Buckinghamshire.
E-ACT chief executive Jane Millward is currently away from her role and an interim chief executive has been leading the trust since December last year.
In a statement signing off E-ACT’s accounts on 10 December last year, the trust’s interim chief executive, Tom Campbell, says: “Other than the items under further consideration as referred to on page 83 that is currently ongoing and for which no conclusion can yet be drawn, I confirm that no instances of material irregularity, impropriety or funding non-compliance have been discovered to date.”
An E-ACT spokesperson said: “We can confirm that the review is ongoing. As stated in our annual report, the issues are not deemed to be material in the context of the financial results reported in the latest financial statements.”
