REFUGEE

Kingston Tamil School may finally receive its grant from Kingston Council after witnesses failed to come forward and substantiate allegations that led to a £10,000 inquiry.

The council's executive was ready to hand over £12,989 for the second year of a three year grant in February.

But payment of all but one month's money was postponed during an investigation which eventually cleared the school of handing over taxpayers’ money to a Sri Lankan tsunami relief charity.

Nathan Kumar, chairman of the British Tamil Forum, submitted evidence to Councillor Howard Jones shortly before the February meeting, but told a scrutiny panel on Tuesday evening the evidence was second hand.

No-one else volunteered to support the allegations.

Coun Jones said: "What I heard from Mr Kumar did not come up to proof based on the evidence I heard when we first met.

"We never had anybody who actually came forward to say this is my document and I am going to support it."

The council's internal auditors told the meeting they spent 173 hours investigating the allegations, equivalent to £10,300 of public money.

Jeremy Kite, interim assistant director of audit, said: "We found that in terms of the funding request, the school did have a need for funding but the extent of the funding was less than that that was on the grant application".

The panel referred the investigation results to the executive to reconsider whether to award the grant.

Mr K Ilankovan, of the Tamil School, said it accepted the auditor's recommendations.

He said: "It is a fair outcome.

"More than our money it is our prestige, and we are a professional organisation.

"We hope the executive will give us the money at the next meeting."

Councillor Bob Steed, executive member for environment, sustainability and climate Change, said the council and Tamil School were working together, and any reduction in the grant would cause difficulties.

The story so far
Kingston Tamil School, based at Tolworth Girls' School, was founded in 1986, but following disputes an alternative Surrey Tamil School was set up at Coombe Boys School. Both receive grants from Kingston Council.

The council's internal auditors investigated allegations against the Kingston school that it handed, but found no concerns about pupil numbers or a tsunami relief fund donation.

While it cleared the school of financial irregularities, it found "the school did not provide full disclosure of all relevant financial information", and "the governance arrangements were found to be unclear".

The investigators made a number of recommendations, including consolidation of the school's accounts with those of related organisations, and making accurate returns to Companies House.