4. Memorandum from Equalities and Human
Rights Commission
EHRC ACCOUNTS, 2006-08
I am writing to let you know of an issue that
has been brought to my attention in the last few days in relation
to the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the Equality
and Human Rights Commission's accounts which the Public Accounts
Committee will be considering on Wednesday.
The Comptroller and Auditor General's report
refers to consultancy fees which were paid to seven individuals
re-engaged by the Commission on short-term contracts without the
Treasury's authority. In the case of one individual, the total
consultancy fee quoted was £105,216. That figure is drawn
from the business case which the Commission put to the Government
Equalities Office and subsequently to the Treasury.
I have now been told that a further payment
of £15,000 was made directly to the individual concerned,
after he had left the Commission. The papers that I have seen
describe the payment as a "rate change".
The payment was authorised by the Interim Chief
Operating Officer of the Commission but I am not yet clear why
the payment was made. Many of the individuals directly concerned
have now left the Commission and I am contacting them to try to
understand the decision-making process which led to the payment.
I will pursue these inquiries and let the Government Equalities
Office and the National Audit Office have a report on this as
soon as I am able to do so. The NAO have told me that they will
review the circumstances of the payment. The payment was treated
as an accrual in the Commission's accounts for 2006-08.
It does not seem that the extra payment was
included in the calculation of the business case that was put
to the Government Equalities Office and the Treasury, nor was
it notified separately to the National Audit Office when the Comptroller
and Auditor General's report on the Annual Report and Accounts
was in preparation.
As the Commission's present Accounting Officer,
I considered it essential to draw the payment to the attention
of the Government Equalities Office and the Comptroller and Auditor
General, as I did last week, and to write to you about it now.
I very much regret it was not included in the numbers previously
notified and that I cannot yet fully explain it. I apologise on
behalf of the Commission.
I am copying this letter to the Comptroller
and Auditor General, to Neil Sayers at the National Audit Office
and to Jonathan Rees at the Government Equalities Office.
Neil Kinghan
Interim Director-General
1 December 2009
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