Scottish Daily Mail

Watchdog chief didn’t read police funds report

Tribunal told it was not his job to deal with whistleblo­wer’s claim

- By Sam Walker

THE chief executive of the police watchdog signed off but ‘did not read’ a report on concerns from a whistleblo­wer that inappropri­ate payments had been made to officers, a tribunal heard yesterday.

John Foley, who earned up to £120,000, told a tribunal it was ‘not his job’ to inspect a draft version of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) certificat­e of assurance containing allegation­s of misuse of funds.

The hearing in Glasgow had previously heard the claims by SPA bookkeeper Amy McDonald involved a string of employees and officials.

They included Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatric­k, who was paid £67,000 by bank transfer to help move house. Mrs McDonald claimed the proceeds were not declared ‘on a timely basis’, meaning the SPA settled the tax bill.

The tribunal also heard, in another case, Mr Foley approved a ‘settlement agreement’ rather than a voluntary redundancy package with an unnamed official after the creation of Police Scotland, but there was ‘no evidence the case was reported to the board’.

Giving evidence yesterday, Mr Foley blamed ‘paperwork’ for his failure to read the document.

He said: ‘In my office there was an awful lot of paperwork and sometimes the chief executive’s office is used as a deposit box. I never reviewed the certificat­e of assurance. It’s entirely feasible the certificat­es of assurance were in my office and it’s entirely feasible my personal assistant could have said to me something along the lines of, “Are those certificat­es of assurances ready to go?”. And I would have said yes.

‘That’s why we employ accountant­s to do that kind of work. They are also passed to the auditors, so if there was anything that needed to be brought to my attention I would expect either the senior accountant­s to do it or the auditors to do it. It’s not a job you would expect the chief executive to carry out.’

Mr Foley, who left the SPA in November last year after being given a £57,000 ‘golden handshake’ payment on top of an early retirement sum of £43,470, also told the hearing he had initially missed a complaint by Mrs McDonald in December 2016 because he ‘did not’ receive emails on a Sunday. He told the tribunal that he picked up the matter on his return to work the following week.

Mr Foley admitted the case involving Mrs McDonald, 44, had come amid a ‘difficult situation’ in which he had been forced to launch a money saving ‘action plan’ after which her position as an accountant had been made redundant.

Mr Foley told the inquiry he had not learnt the full details of Mrs McDonald’s grievances, known as protected disclomess­age

Seeking compensati­on

sures’, until May 2017. But his claims contradict his then boss, SPA chairman Andrew Flanagan, who yesterday told the tribunal both he and Mr Foley had been aware of one complaint as far back as 2016, when Mrs McDonald had sent them each an email informing them litigation process had begun.

During cross-examinatio­n by advocate David Hay, representi­ng Mrs McDonald, Mr Flanagan agreed he had received a from Mrs McDonald flagging up a number of payments she deemed ‘improper’.

He claimed he had then discussed the complaints with Mr Foley as part of weekly one-toone meetings. He told the hearing: ‘When I read it, for the most part I had a level of awareness of all the transactio­ns and I believe Mr Foley had investigat­ed each of them.’

Mr Flanagan said it was then decided to commission an independen­t investigat­ion in June the following year into how the grievance had been handled.

The subsequent report said Mrs McDonald had highlighte­d a ‘number of areas of poor governance and a lack of transparen­cy within the SPA’.

Mrs McDonald, who now works in the SPA forensics division, launched the case seeking compensati­on for ‘injury to hurt feelings’. She claimed she was sidelined after making the allegation­s of ‘financial wrongdoing’.

The tribunal continues.

 ??  ?? Evidence: John Foley at yesterday’s hearing
Evidence: John Foley at yesterday’s hearing
 ??  ?? Tribunal: Amy McDonald
Tribunal: Amy McDonald

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