A parliamentary committee has condemned the performance of senior staff in public bodies in two reports on standards of personal conduct.

The former Conservative minister, David Davis, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said the reports showed "errors and weaknesses which were preventable and should have been prevented".

The reports cover the resignation in July 1996 of the English Heritage Chief Executive Chris Green and the management of overseas courses at the Swansea Institute of Higher Education.

Low standards

The first report said that bad judgement was exercised in employing Mr Green who was found unfit for the job.

Mr Green was responsible for accounting to parliament how much money English Heritage spent.

Over £60,000 was spent in recruiting the former Intercity managing director to the post. The committee said he "breached the standards of integrity and trust essential for public accountability."

The second report found that the management of overseas courses at the Swansea Institute of Higher Education was "seriously flawed".

Gerald Stockdale, the principal of the college, who resigned in 1996, made 18 trips to Kenya for the institution which cost £25,000.

But the total income from courses in Kenya was only £28,000.

Criticisms were also made of the standards of the courses on offer and the fact that diploma certificates printed overseas may have gone missing.

Inadequate structures

Mr Davis said: "What these two reports have in common is that the structures of governance in place in both organisations were inadequate to cope when problems were caused by the personal conduct of chief executives."

He said it was disappointing that the cases followed only a few years after a previous investigation into the same area.

The 1994 Public Accounts Committee report on the Proper Conduct of Public Business, "specifically identified risks which became reality in the reports we are publishing," he said.
 

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