Swansea makes complaint to police after senior staff suspensions

Swansea University says that it has made a “formal criminal complaint” after investigating issues related to a £200 million development project.

Swansea suspended its vice-chancellor, Richard Davies, in November. Marc Clement, dean of the university’s management school, and two other staff members, were also suspended at the same time.

The suspensions appear to have been linked to concerns over plans to build a £200 million Wellness Village at Llanelli, part of the £1.3 billion Swansea Bay City Deal.

A Swansea spokeswoman said that the university “has been in regular dialogue with the authorities since November 2018 based on the findings of our initial investigation. A formal criminal complaint has been made and the matter is with South Wales Police and Dyfed Powys Police.

“We will of course continue to cooperate fully with them. Our processes, which are being carried out by an independent investigator, are ongoing.”

The university did not state the nature of the complaint, or against whom it had filed the complaint.

A police spokeswoman said: “Dyfed-Powys Police and South Wales Police can confirm that they have received a complaint which is currently subject to consideration by both forces.”

In a 10-page grievance letter to the university council that emerged last month, Professor Davies said that the Wellness Village project took up 75 per cent of the “column centimetres” in the suspension letter that he received, with the rest detailing allegations that he “failed to assure appropriate due diligence, governance and systems of control around major projects and commercial activities of the university”.

He accused the university registrar of trying to “seize the position of vice-chancellor” and said that the university council has been “negligent in permitting this manifestly unfair concentration of power in the hands of one person”.

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com