Serious money — serious questions

Nescot governors were not made aware of the contract to pay almost £200,000 to their principal’s husband for 18 months.

You would think that having been contacted by FE Week, the board members would fall over themselves to demonstrate that they had a robust governance response.

But despite written and verbal communication with several governors, including the chairman, they were not forthcoming before we went to press.

I found that disappointing given the seriousness of the issues at stake here.

As I said in an email to the chair, I used to work for a college and attended board meetings, so have a good idea how it all works.

Putting aside the complex nature of the Saudi project, were the college’s internal related party transaction and procurement policy rules broken and if so what, if anything, did the board do about it?

The college spokesperson said the college was declining to answer, but hopefully the chair will in due course.