| answer text |
<p>As stated in the British Council's Annual Report, during the year ended 31 March
2014, the British Council made no payments that fall within the category of special
payments as defined in Managing Public Money.</p><p> </p><p>The losses referenced
in the Annual Report fall into three major categories:</p><p>1) £1.9m worth of claims
waived or abandoned. This included a write off of £1.7m worth of fees for work done
in 2011-12. These fees were owed by education institutions in a country where the
deteriorating political and security situation meant they are not likely to be recoverable
in the foreseeable future. £0.4m of this was provided for in the year to March 2013
and only the balance was charged in the year ended March 2014. The debt was part of
the Council’s full cost recovery work and no grant-in-aid funds were involved. Approval
was sought from HMT and granted.</p><p> </p><p>2) £540k worth of fruitless payments.
This included:</p><p>a) £402k (122 cases) of historic contract balances from 2007
to 2010 in relation to funds granted to beneficiaries under the Youth in Action agreement,
which were deemed ineligible for reimbursements to the British Council by the European
Union. These were provided for in the year to 31 March 2013.</p><p>b) £137k in relation
to a final court judgement of damages due from a long running court case in the UAE
about a failed premises project that concluded in January 2014.</p><p> </p><p>3) £170k
worth of cash losses. This included net losses from frauds in Kenya and Senegal disclosed
in the Governance Statement on page 54 of the Annual Report.</p>
|
|
