​Annual accounts show trustees were paid to carry out review

Trustees of the Halo Trust were paid over £120,000 to review the way the charity operated after its chief executive was forced to resign.

The Dumfries-based charity’s annual accounts show that trustees Simon Conway and chair Amanda Pullinger were paid £122,750 to examine structural, remuneration and governance arrangements.

Conway was paid £96,750 for his input while Pullinger received £26,000 with both claiming costs on top of fees.

It meant the charity’s governance costs for the year totalled £350,000, compared to £56,000 the previous year.

A spokeswoman for the Halo Trust said the review was needed to provide the continuity that was to “keep the charity going.”

The charity hit the headlines in 2013 after former chief executive Guy Willoughby’s salary package was made public, part of which included private boarding school fees for three of his children.

Willoughby eventually resigned last year after being suspended over an alleged spat with board members.

The charity rose to prominence in 1997 when Diana, Princess of Wales, visited a minefield in Angola being cleared by Halo. It remains one of the most enduring images of her.

Prince Harry, her son, was patron until March last year.

Elsewhere the latest accounts show Halo’s income rose by £2.47 million in the last year, bringing it up to £26.63m.

This was down to an increase in voluntary income, as well as the lease of field assets to the US division of the Halo Trust, donations in kind and the sale of other assets.

It also stated the highest-earning employee at the charity earned between £200,000 and £220,000.

A contract with Willoughby’s wife Fiona, which was in place to provide photographic, marketing and fundraising services, was terminated last year.