LAPSES in recruitment policy - uncovered by a Daily Echo investigation - were not acceptable, regeneration bosses have admitted.

At a meeting of the board governing Southampton's £80 million inner-city regeneration project, Councillor Paul Jenks said that the Daily Echo report revealing that a discharged bankrupt had been appointed to manage a regeneration project had raised "important questions about the recruitment process".

"There were lapses and these have been addressed, but they were not acceptable," he said. Mr Jenks, who heads the regeneration project, said he had not been told that Charanjit Kaur Garcha was a bankrupt.

Mrs Garcha, a former head-teacher, had been appointed AS manager of the SRB-funded Bilingual Learners' Project, which was awarded £47,000 of public funds with a further £79,200.

But her immediate bosses were aware of her financial status, and she was not put in charge of payments to staff or for resources, it has emerged.

"It is fair to say Mrs Garcha never attempted to hide her financial position," said Mr Jenks. Procedures are now being put in place by the city council to ensure such lapses do not happen again.

"It's not to say that everyone should know everyone else's business, but on this occasion clearly it would have been appropriate to tell me," he said.

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