Alliance Trust warns auditor over Garrett-Cox bonus payment mistake

Overstatement of senior staff remuneration

The board of Alliance Trust has told auditor Deloitte to be more careful after an overstatement of around 10% was made on bonus payments for former CEO Katherine Garrett-Cox and previous finance director Alan Trotter, according to reports.

The Sunday Times reports the cumulative effect of the mistake was to inflate their remuneration by around £100,000. Shareholders at the trust's AGM last week heard the amended figures will be published in its annual report for 2016 and the correct amount will be paid. The mistake was made during a period when the pay and bonuses of key staff, including Garrett-Cox, have come under intense scrutiny as part of activist investor Elliott Advisors' attack on the company. Its intervention led to a radical overhaul of the trust, with Garrett-Cox herself leaving this March after a decade. ...