Irregular pay rises revealed at Royal Armouries - Museums Association

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Irregular pay rises revealed at Royal Armouries

Auditor's report says increases broke Treasury guidelines
Irregular pay increases at the Royal Armouries have been revealed as the reason why government auditors refused to sign its 2011/12 accounts – an issue that later saw the suspension of the museum’s director-general.

Jonathon Riley was suspended from his post last September while an internal review was carried out into a confidential "auditing matter". Six months later he resigned from the museum in order to pursue other roles and recover from his recent treatment for cancer.

But now a report by Amyas Morse, the head of the National Audit Office (NAO), has revealed irregular pay increases to two members of the Royal Armouries staff that broke Treasury rules.

Despite a pay freeze for civil servants earning more than £21,000 a year, two pay increases worth £5,000 and £4,000 were awarded to one Royal Armouries employee while another was awarded £6,000 during 2011/12.

A further incident was discovered during the year, where an employee received a 17.5% pay increase of £7,000. The government limit is 1%.

A statement by the NAO said: “There is insufficient evidence that due process was followed in awarding these pay increases, and insufficient documentation to support any exceptional circumstances to justify pay increases for the individual members of staff. In the absence of any approval from the Treasury, the payments have been deemed irregular.”

The museum’s 2011/12 accounts, which should have been filed last July but were laid before Parliament at the end of last month, refer to allegations "relating to the regularity of certain actions", which led to Riley’s suspension while they were investigated.

They also note that there were issues relating to control processes in HR, procurement and payment of business expenses.

The accounts state: “These [issues] have raised significant concerns about weaknesses in policies and procedures in these areas, although they are not considered to have had a material impact on the true and fair view of the financial statements.”
 
The Royal Armouries has now implemented new procedures that mean the final approval for all pay rises will have to be signed off by more than one individual. All directors’ pays increases will now be reviewed by the board.  

Wes Paul, chairman of the Royal Armouries, said: “We acted swiftly and appropriately to work with the NAO to ensure that these irregularities will not happen again. They are deeply regrettable but I am confident that we now have the correct safeguards in place.”

Chris Walker continues to act as interim chief executive and accounting officer until a permanent replacement for Riley is appointed.


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