Consultancy payments deemed ‘excessive’

Mr Wilkins received £147,000 in fees for carrying out support work at other schools in the two years to March 2009 – on top of £236,000 in salary, which included a £28,000 increase in September 2008.

The audit report said the consultancy payments, which went into Mr Wilkins’ private company Challenge Leadership Ltd, were not “subject to the necessary levels of authorisation and on this basis were not legitimate.”

The only authorisation found by auditors was a series of letters from the chair of governors, Jim Walkden, to Mr Wilkins – which Mr Wilkins helped write himself.

The report said: “There was no clear, transparent formal approval process involving the relevant (Outwood Grange) Governors, to authorise consultancy payments.” It added that “the only tangible evidence of approval of the payments was in the form of a number of letters produced jointly between the chair of governors, Jim Walkden and Mr Wilkins.

“Audit findings show that Mr Walkden did not have delegated authority to personally authorise such payments in any capacity and did not pay proper due regard to required governance processes in agreeing the payments to Mr Wilkins.”

There was no evidence Mr Walkden acted in bad faith but the report said auditors “would have expected the Chair of Governors to be familiar with the rules and regulations...

“It has been determined, and supported through legal advice, that the payments were not properly authorised and should not have been paid in the way they were.”

As a result, Mr Wilkins was asked to repay £91,000 as previously revealed by the Yorkshire Post. The report said the figure was revised down to £80,000 but adds that, to date, “Mr Wilkins and Outwood Grange are claiming nothing is due to be repaid”.

The report states: “Outwood Grange Academy Trust, Mr Walkden and Mr Wilkins refute that he has been overpaid, claiming that all payments he has received were valid and made with the knowledge and support of relevant governors, including the Governing body, although there is insufficient evidence to confirm this to be the case.”

There are also questions as to whether Mr Wilkins was effectively paid twice over as he received a full salary for running Outwood Grange but, at times, spent more than half his time working on his outside consultancy work for which he was also being paid £500 a day. Despite the amount of time spent on other schools, Mr Wilkins’ salary was for running Outwood Grange was also increased by £28,000 in November 2008 when he became executive principal.

It was found that on occasions in the two years up to March 2009, Mr Wilkins claimed consultancy fees for 20 days a month working at other schools where he was providing specialist support as a National Leader in Education (NLE).

The report said: “It is estimated that during the two-year period subject to review, Mr Wilkins spent approximately 280 days on NLE consultancy work which, even taking account of long hours that he claimed to have worked, raises questions over his ability to fulfil all roles and responsibilities as headteacher of Outwood Grange at the same time.”

Mr Wilkins’ commitment to his work at other schools prompted Outwood Grange to promote an assistant headteacher, Julie Slater, to vice principal and then to principal at Outwood Grange itself – her salary nearly doubling from £44,703 to £80,523.

The report said: “It is not clear to what extent governors took account of the time spent, and income received, by Mr Wilkins, plus the role being fulfilled by the Principal, when reviewing his substantive salary in November 2008 and agreeing to a £28,000 per annum salary increase.”

It added: “Throughout the course of the review, Mr Wilkins, Mr Walkden and their legal representatives have refuted claims that the salary payments, fees and expenses were not properly authorised, maintaining that they were properly due and stating they were claimed in accordance with rules/custom and practice and with the knowledge of relevant Governors.”

Mr Wilkins told auditors that he arranged for payments to be made into his personal company because it was “felt imprudent” to put them on a salary footing when there was uncertainty about the number of contracts with outside schools and how long they would continue.

The report recommends that Wakefield Council refers the consultancy payments to HM Revenue and Customs to review “in order to protect the council from possible allegations of financial impropriety” though it does acknowledge Mr Wilkins as stating he has paid the relevant amount of tax through his company.

As the council is no longer responsible for Outwood Grange since it became an academy in 2009, the report also calls on the school to review the payments made to Mr Wilkins. Outwood last night maintained the payments were correctly approved.