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Hackney superhead Greg Wallace has been suspended amid claims that he awarded an IT contract to Tony Zangoura, a man with whom he has a close personal relationship.
The financial and staffing powers of the Best Start Federation governing body have also been suspended.
Best Start Federation is made up of London Fields, Woodberry Down, Burbage, Mandeville and Whitmore schools, all of which fall under the remit of Executive Principal Greg Wallace.
The suspension follows an investigation launched in April 2012 by Hackney Council into management practices at the Federation.
The suspension of powers of the governing body means governors are banned from dealing with financial and staff-related matters within the schools.
However governors’ access to the schools has not been revoked.
All of the schools run by Mr Wallace have been celebrated for their improvements. The head has been singled out for praise on several occasions by Education Secretary Michael Gove for improving Hackney primary schools.
The Best Start Federation governing body has appealed to the Secretary of State for Education to intervene on the matter.
Peter Passam MBE, who sits on Best Start’s board of governors, said in a statement that Wallace was “open with me about his connection with [Tony Zangoura of] C2 Technology.”
However, not all members of Best Start’s governing body were made aware of Wallace’s personal connection to Tony Zangoura.
“The whole governing body was not aware of the relationship and that’s where there is concern from the council,” said Jane Kemsley, Best Start Federation’s acting vice chair of governors.
“We weren’t aware of that relationship. The governing body were not aware of what the investigation was all about until very recently.
Kemsley claims that the Best Start Federation also had no obligation to inform the council of the relationship between Wallace and C2 Technology.
The IT contracts in question are renewed annually.
Following the first contract at Woodberry Down in 2009, Best Start Federation’s relationship with C2 Technology was expanded to include the other four schools in the group.
The Best Start Federation governing body is working currently to convert all five schools into a Multi-Academy Trust outside the control of the Hackney Learning Trust.
The intended conversion date was 1 May 2013 but the investigation has delayed this move.
Currently all five schools operate within Hackney Council’s Learning Trust, which gives the Town Hall the right to intervene in matters of school management.
However, if the Federation is successful in its bid to become a Multi-Academy Trust, its budget will be devolved entirely to the Department for Education, making it unaccountable to the local authority.
Greg Wallace had been working toward this goal. But, says Kemsley, “the investigation has put this on hold. It might well stop it. We don’t know.”
Hackney Council was unable to comment on Wallace’s pay terms while on suspension, or on the details of the governing body’s involvement regarding the investigation.
Note: The editor of the Hackney Citizen, Keith Magnum, was a governor of the Best Start Federation until October 2010. While on the governing body he was unaware of Mr Wallace’s personal relationship with Tony Zangoura.
This article was updated with new information at 12:30pm and 5.30pm Monday 29 July 2013.
