Rolls-Royce’s chief operating officer could face legal action over his time as the boss of the controversial High Speed 2 rail link.
MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which oversees government spending have raised the prospect of court action against ex-HS2 chief Simon Kirby, after the £55.7bn rail link was accused by the watchdog of a “shocking waste of taxpayer’s money” by making unauthorised redundancy payments.
Mr Kirby quit HS2 in late 2016 after two years in the job, and joined Rolls-Royce in January this year – just weeks before the aerospace giant agreed to pay £671m to settle bribery claims.
The PAC report on management of the project to link London and the North by high-speed train singled out unauthorised redundancy payments for criticism, but also questioned management’s grip on the flagship project.
MPs also said HS2 “lacks basic financial controls... heightening the risk of fraud”, suffers “excessively high staff turnover” and that its bosses do not understand the risks it faces, with funding expected to fall short by £1.8bn.
The committee said the decision by HS2 – a government-owned company – to relocate staff from London to Birmingham and pay those who did not want to move “enhanced” redundancy was “unacceptable”.
HS2 was only allowed to make statutory redundancy payments, yet asked – and was refused by – the Department for Transport (DfT) to offer more to staff, PAC said.
Despite the refusal, HS2 paid £2.76m in redundancy of which £1.76m was unauthorised.
The extra payouts were made because of what PAC described as HS2’s “weak internal processes”.
HS2 route - phase 1 and phase 2
PAC said there was “no way to recover” the £1.76m, calling it a “shocking waste of taxpayers’ money”.
Concerns were also raised by what MPs called HS2’s “culture of failing to provide full and accurate information”.
MPs said the National Audit Office (NAO) spending watchdog had discovered that Mr Kirby had received an email from the DfT “expressly disallowing” the higher redundancy pay.
However, it said the message was not shared, resulting in what MPs described as “incorrect information being circulated”, and executives telling HR staff the DfT had agreed the payments.
MPs raised the prospect of legal action against Mr Kirby, saying he hadn’t passed on “specific instructions” not to make the more generous payments.
“Even though [Mr Kirby] no longer has a contractual relationship with HS2 or the DfT, they both should carefully consider whether any further action can now be taken against [him],” the PAC report added.