Two colleges have told how Skills Funding Agency accounts showing what they spent on salary for the post of principal in 2013/14 were incorrect.
The accounts, which showed a dozen FE colleges handed over more than £200k in salaries to principals, were wrong for NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group) and Blackpool Sixth Form College (SFC), they claimed.
An NCG spokesperson told FE Week that the £225k figure listed by the SFA under principal’s salary for Newcastle College was actually for the chief executive of the overarching NCG, Joe Docherty. He said principal Carole Kitching’s salary fell into “the £120k to £130k band”.
A spokesperson for Blackpool SFC said that a member of its staff had mistakenly input £211k for then-principal Felicity Greeves. She was actually paid £139k, they said.
An SFA spokesperson said: “We ask colleges to provide the remuneration of the most senior officer at the organisation. For Newcastle College we have included the figure provided by NCG. NCG’s financial statements confirm that this is for the chief executive of NCG.” She added: “Information supplied by colleges has been subject to basic credibility checks, either by the SFA or EFA. While every effort has been made to cleanse the data, colleges may see inaccuracies.”
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