Scotland’s Auditor General spilled the tea on which colleges are lagging behind in publishing a crucial national report because they couldn’t get their accounts in on time. The Scottish Funding Council’s interim Chief Executive spilled the beans to the Education, Children, and Young People committee, revealing that reports on the financial sustainability of colleges and universities have been pushed back due to some issues with “a couple of colleges.”
In a letter to the committee convener, Auditor General for Scotland Stephen Boyle spilled more tea by naming Forth Valley College and Lews Castle College as the culprits behind the delays. These two colleges failed to hand in their audited accounts on time, causing the SFC to hit a roadblock in completing its financial sustainability report for the college sector. Stephen Boyle also spilled that he’s working on statutory reports for both institutions, with Forth Valley College already under the microscope for a serious procurement breach that got the police involved.
Now, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty details of what went down during a committee session on May 7th. The SFC Chief Exec spilled the tea on why the reports on financial sustainability got held up, pointing fingers at a few colleges that slacked off in submitting their accounts. When asked by Labour’s Pam Duncan-Glancy MSP to dish out some info on the sector’s financial state, Martin Boyle hinted that they wanted to wait it out to drop a bombshell report covering all colleges and universities. But Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie wasn’t having it, raising concerns about the transparency of the SFC and hinting that they might not be keeping it real with the ministers.
