News / Zetland trust income
SHETLAND Islands Council is to examine whether funds belonging to a trust that offers grants to students and educational organisations can be invested differently to generate greater income.
The Zetland Educational Trust, which was created in 1961, has a pot of money worth £662,000 and dishes out bursaries of £200 to university students, along with grants for more general education projects.
In the last financial year the trust only earned a little over £7,000 from bank investments – leading members of the SIC’s audit committee to wonder whether a more profitable manner of investment could be found.
Last year 12 bursaries were distributed to support university students’ studies – five in the name of Arthur Anderson and seven in the name of E&M Gair.
The total disbursed of £2,745 was substantially down on the £17,842 dished out in 2013/14, prompting councillor Theo Smith to wonder how many people were aware of the trust.
A sharp fall in the number of bursaries was simply down to a lack of applications, councillors heard.
The fund can also dish out money for educational excursions, special equipment, the “promotion of ability and skill” in swimming, the promotion of knowledge of Shetland and educational experiments and research.
SIC finance official Jonathan Belford said he would be happy to examine what other investment options might be possible.
Councillor Michael Stout questioned why auditors were charging a £1,200 fee to audit a “very straightforward and relatively small trust – it can’t be that complex an audit job”.
Belford acknowledged the fee “does seem an awful lot in comparison to the amount that’s earned” but “in their defence, on very few occasions have I seen anything close to such a low audit fee for a trust”.
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