Money awarded to Mark Haysom, chief executive of Learning and Skills Council, was on top of £223,000 salary and £100,000 pay-off

The chief executive of the Learning Skills Council walked away with a £36,000 bonus last year, despite presiding over the disastrous college building programme.

The LSC’s accounts for 2008-9, published today, show that Mark Haysom, the chief executive, took home the payment when he resigned over the building fiasco in April. It comes on top of his £223,000 annual salary and a pay-off of more than £100,000.

The bonus payment relates to performance during the previous year (2007-8), and notes in the accounts say that no further bonus would be paid for Haysom’s final year. However, the payment means that Haysom received more than £360,000 during the year that the college programme was halted, after it was revealed it had exceeded its £2.3bn budget by more than 150%.

Haysom was replaced as chief executive by Geoffrey Russell when the extent of the LSC’s mismanagement of the programme became clear in March. A review led by Andrew Foster found that the LSC had “compromised a good policy by the manner of its implementation.” 144 schemes were placed on hold, and only a handful have since been given the go-ahead.

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