The report, which looked at the performance of sponsored academies, found that the Department for Education (DfE) has "struggled to enforce payment of outstanding debts" from academy sponsors.
Under the last government, sponsors were liable to pay 10 per cent of capital costs for academies. The rules then changed and new sponsors were instead required to set up endowment funds for schools.
There is no longer a legal requirement for new sponsors to make financial contributions to running academies. But sponsors who set up schools under the old system still owe money to government.
"According to figures provided by the DfE in December 2010, of a total of £147m of capital contributions pledged, only £121m have been received," the report said. "For endowment contributions, sponsors had pledged to provide a total of £71m, of which £42m had fallen due by December 2010. Thirty-eight million had been received, leaving £4m still outstanding.
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