Not the retiring type

New schools, like Colindale, can only be built if we all pay proper taxes

Let Mr Mustard say straight away that he has been told that Ieuan Renowden is a good chap. It looks like he has got in with bad company though.

Executive summary:

There is another "consultant" not paying PAYE

You can take early retirement and then come straight back to work as a consultant.

There is no need to bother with tiresome paperwork like contracts in Barnet Council.

Consultants can set their own charge rate.

Tax dodging is endemic at Barnet Council.

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Until about 2005 Mr Renowden was the Head of Colindale Junior School. Then he became a Learning Network Inspector and must have been on the council payroll (Mr Mustard does not know if he was simply a shoe-in or if an advertisement and true competition was necessary).

In School Circular #25 of 26 March 2008 it was announced that "Mr Renowden, the Learning Network Inspector for the West will be taking early retirement at the end of this academic year" i.e. in July 2008. He was only 58 at that time so that would be early retirement, if he had stopped working. He took the summer holidays off. His pay at that time would have been in the range of £59,155 to £65,276. The range is now £60,781 to £67,071 (Soulbury Scales 27-33)

So what happened next. Take a look at these payments to IJR Associates Ltd , whose Director is one Ieuan Renowden. Someone at Barnet Council might have put him up to the idea of using a Limited company. For some reason these payments have not been re-routed through Hays from April 11.

Date	Paid £	Service Provided
11/11/2008	6,750	consutancy Oct to Dec 2008
04/12/2008	5,400
08/01/2009	5,850
10/02/2009	1,800	DfE grant for 1 to 1 tuition programme, Local Authority management and monitoring, spring 2009
10/02/2009	1,800	consultancy - cover, Learning network Inspector
20/02/2009	1,600	Interim management of Early Years Capital grant
09/03/2009	1,350	DfE grant for 1 to 1 tuition programme, Local Authority management and monitoring, spring 2009
09/03/2009	1,350	consultancy - cover, Learning network Inspector
12/03/2009	1,200	Management of Early Years Capital grant
03/04/2009	1,800	DfE grant for 1 to 1 tuition programme, Local Authority management and monitoring, spring 2009
03/04/2009	1,800	consultancy - cover, Learning network Inspector
09/04/2009	2,000	Interim management of Early Years Capital grant
11/05/2009	450	DfE grant for 1 to 1 tuition programme, Local Authority management and monitoring
11/05/2009	2,700
22/06/2009	4,500
07/07/2009	5,400
22/07/2009	4,050
05/10/2009	5,850	DfE grant for 1 to 1 tuition programme, Local Authority management and monitoring
05/11/2009	4,950
01/12/2009	5,400
08/01/2010	4,050
12/02/2010	5,400	DfE grant for 1 to 1 tuition programme, Local Authority management and monitoring
03/03/2010	5,400
07/04/2010	6,300
10/05/2010	2,700	DfE grant for 1 to 1 tuition programme, Local Authority management and monitoring
02/06/2010	5,400
02/07/2010	5,850
28/07/2010	4,950
04/10/2010	6,300
09/11/2010	4,500
03/12/2010	5,400
11/01/2011	4,050
11/02/2011	5,400
15/03/2011	4,050
13/04/2011	6,300
11/05/2011	3,150	DfE grant for 1 to 1 tuition programme, Local Authority management and monitoring, Summer 2011
03/06/2011	5,400
05/07/2011	4,950
02/09/2011	2,700
02/09/2011	1,800	DfE grant for 1 to 1 tuition programme, Local Authority management and monitoring, July 2011
Total	160,050

The daily rate appears to be £450 and using the 195 day school year this would lead to annual payments of £87,750.

Can a consultant really be employed for 3 years on what looks like a pretty constant basis, i.e. like an employee, without them being on the payroll. The problem here is that for part of the time at least Mr Renowden was doing his old job of Network Learning Inspector so if he was on PAYE doing that job in 2007 then he should have been paying PAYE when doing it in for 3 months in 2009 and so Barnet Council are at fault. The length of time that you are doing the job is irrelevant, it is a question of if you are acting as an employee and clearly he was when he was a NLI. Here are the Accounts of IJR.

Accounts of IJR Associates Ltd

If you are wondering what has happened since the payments stopped the answer is on a different blog, here. If you don't want people to know your business then don't put anything on the internet. Mr Mustard will be looking out for more payments to you in the future, once you have come back from around the world, Mr Renowden and he hopes he won't find any.

Normally when consultants are being employed on a doubtful tax basis there is an indemnity in the contract (there is one in the Jacquie McGeachie contract, for example, although it is badly worded) so that the council can recover any tax it ultimately has to pay on behalf of the "consultant". Is there such a clause in the contract with Mr Renowden? No, there isn't. Why is that? It is because a contract does not exist. That is correct. Another £160,000 paid out without any contract whatsoever. Disgraceful. This missing contract did not get picked up in the review of procurement presented to the Audit Committee on 6 September 2011. How many others were missed?

If you are aware of any other Barnet Council or ex school ex-employees retiring or being made redundant and then coming back fairly quickly as consultants please do send the details to Mr Mustard. Your identity will not be disclosed (if in doubt create a gmail address just for this communication).

The BBC have been looking at Town Hall Tax Dodgers and report that there might be 100 across all local authorities. They are being very cautious for some reason. There are 33 London councils who will probably account for 1,000 on their own. Mr Mustard has identified several so far in Barnet alone and there are more to come from his records. No dodger is safe.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard