International tech training company CoGrammar is due to fight the Department for Education in court next December, FE Week can reveal.
The firm, which ran government-funded digital skills bootcamps until its contracts were axed, is suing the DfE over millions of pounds in withheld payments. The department blocked substantial claims after investigations uncovered alleged fraud.
The company, which operates out of South Africa, used a fake employer to claim milestone payments to the DfE – which its management blamed on a “rogue employee”.
Officials were also concerned after discovering the provider deployed its own staff to conduct bootcamp interviews instead of employers, and made “improbable job offers” from small or dormant companies.
The revelations triggered the rejection of funding claims across several waves of the bootcamp programme.
FE Week also revealed that once CoGrammar’s bootcamp payments were stopped, the firm charged bootcamp learners – including unemployed people – for courses that were supposed to be free, which breached funding rules.
CoGrammar argued the audit relied on by the DfE to withhold payments was “materially flawed” and it has already proven major errors in the department’s processes. This summer, officials initially claimed the DfE was owed around £45,000, before switching to a position where they paid £1.5 million to CoGrammar.
CoGrammar said this was a “clear example of the lack of diligence and accuracy of the defendant’s [DfE] audit processes and ability to correctly calculate payments owed”.
The company added that the DfE cannot withhold payments “on the basis of generalised concerns absent of any finding of breach or fraud” and believes it is still owed at least £3.8 million once alleged errors are corrected.
Bosses at CoGrammar do not dispute that a fictitious employer and persona were used for some bootcamp payment claims, but argue the alleged fraud was an isolated incident and claim they reported a former employee to the police via Action Fraud.
FE Week understands the worker was interviewed by police in August.
The accused ex-staff member is also understood to be launching their own legal claim against CoGrammar CEO Riaz Moola for defamation and harassment.
A costs and case management conference was held last month for CoGrammar’s case against the DfE, and a newly issued court order sets out a schedule of disclosure, sampling, witness statements and bundle preparation running through next year before the dispute reaches a trial.
This includes a “schedule of learners” which will include the name of each learner in dispute; the unique ID number of each learner in dispute and funding wave; the milestones in dispute; the amounts in dispute; the DfE’s reasons for rejecting claims; CoGrammar’s reasons for disagreeing with the DfE’s reasons and for maintaining the validity of that milestone claim; and the DfE’s response to CoGrammar’s reasons.
Both parties must also agree to an “early neutral evaluation process” where they identify a neutral person to evaluate the submissions.
Justice Picken ordered that the case be transferred to the London Circuit Commercial Court, where an eight-day trial will be heard “not before December 10, 2026”.
A DfE spokesperson said: “We do not comment on live legal proceedings.”
CoGrammar did not respond to requests for comment on the trial date.
Your thoughts