Services provided by companies linked to former leaders of the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) costing nearly £300,000 did not “represent market value”, according to the board.
CCS’s accounts for the 12 months to 31 December 2024 show that during the year, the company made a pre-tax loss of £769,000 – a dramatic drop on the £164,000 profit it recorded in its restated accounts covering the previous year.
A section in the accounts document covering “related party transactions” highlights two invoices totalling £291,000 submitted by two companies, one linked to former executive chair Amit Oberoi and another to former consultant and chief strategy officer Alex Minett.
Oberoi and Minett both left CCS in August. CCS did not comment at the time on the reasons for their departure and only confirmed they were no longer employed by the organisation.
According to the accounts, the industry standards body was invoiced a total of £22,000 for cybersecurity-related services by Cybernetic Defence Ltd.
The company is wholly owned and controlled by Zsuzsanna Lesko, a close family member of Oberoi, according to the independently audited accounts.
“The board believes that this does not represent market value for the services CCS received. As at 31 December 2024, the company owed Cybernetic Defence Ltd [£0],” the accounts said.
CCS was also invoiced £269,000 during the 2024 tax year by AM Compliance Consultants, which the document said is the trading company of Alex Minett. The amount was claimed for “services pertaining to preparation for ISO accreditation and others”.
This similarly “does not represent market value for the services CCS received”, and CCS owed AM Compliance Consultants Ltd £0 at the end of the accounting period, the accounts added.
It is unclear from the document whether the invoices were rejected or written off. Neither CCS nor its auditors have responded to requests from Construction News for clarification.
Cybernetic Defence Ltd was incorporated in Companies House in April 2023 and has Lesko as its sole director. According to the unaudited micro company accounts for the year ending 30 April 2024, the firm had a negative capital of £5,300. The business did not have any employees in 2024.
The company is registered under the same Harrow address as UK Construction Board Ltd, a management consultancy company that has Minett and Oberoi as directors.
Oberoi also left his trusteeship at the Lighthouse Charity in July last year, a position he had only taken up three months earlier.
CCS’s latest accounts show that key management staff received remuneration totalling £599,000 in 2024, almost £200,000 more than the previous year (£399,000).
The company, its auditors, Oberoi and Minett did not respond to CN’s requests for comment.
