Medway Labour’s spokeswoman for health has written to hospital bosses demanding justification for spending £1m on a man and his team to sort out the finances – when the deficit trebled.

Cllr Teresa Murray wrote to Medway Maritime’s chairman Shena Winning and chief executive Lesley Dwyer regarding the employment of Tim Bolot and Bolt Partners.

As revealed in the Medway Messenger, over a year he and the team were paid £1 million, including more than £335,000 for Mr Bolot alone over an eight month period – despite that the deficit trebled from £10 million to £30 million during their time employed with the Medway NHS Foundation Trust.

Cllr Murray said her letter was “to obtain your perspective on the extent to which you and the board believe that Mr Bolot’s work is yielding good value for the public money being invested in it”.

It went on to say: “There is a lack of accountability because any targets associated with Mr Bolot’s work are not in the public domain.

“[It is] difficult to comprehend how the sums paid to Mr Bolot and his team can be justified especially given in that time he has been engaged with MMT the deficit has risen.”

She argued the trust’s recovery plan must be financially sustainable and “given Mr Bolot’s worrying record when working with the now defunct South London Healthcare NHS Trust, we feel very uncertain about whether his contribution will enable MMT to achieve this”.

Cllr Murray also asked what plans are in place to recruit a permanent director of finance.

The hospital trust said that as well as the role of full-time interim director of finance, Mr Bolot also provided advice and support in respect of corporate structure, workforce reviews, and restructuring projects.

A spokesman for the trust said at the time of our original story: “Mr Bolot undertook the work of the strategy director during a period when the position was vacant.

“Over the reporting period the team from Bolt Partners were instrumental in delivering a significant reduction in the trust’s deficit as well as developing and assisting in the delivery of the Trust’s improvement plan that we are currently implementing.”