Her aide’s allegations ... and how he was punished

WHAT BARONESS SCOTLAND DID WRONG, AS ALLEGED BY RAM VENUPRASAD:

Gave a £30,000-a-month contract to a company owned her friend, Lord Kamlesh Patel of Bradford, without putting the job out to tender

Hired friends, cronies and political contacts without following the usual open recruitment process, including former Tony Blair spin doctor Matthew Doyle and lobbyist Joe Phelan, who were each paid £16,000 a month from public funds

Appeared to give her sister Hazel Scotland a key role at headquarters without following proper guidelines

Proposed squandering £50,000 on a garden party in which more priority was given to inviting her friends than Commonwealth staff

Spent months hammering out an unjustifiably high salary for herself of £150,000, with a free house in Mayfair and chauffeur-driven car on top, as well as an ‘educational allowance’ to cover school fees – even though her children are adults

WHAT THE SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOUND THAT THE SECRETARIAT AND SECRETARY GENERAL DID TO MR VENUPRASAD:

Falsely accused him of leaking stories to newspapers [The Daily Mail]

Suspended him unreasonably

Did not allow him to attend his own disciplinary hearing, or see details of the allegations against him

The Baroness herself briefed foreign diplomats against him

‘Senior figures’ at the top of the Commonwealth authorised the blackening of his name in official statements to newspapers that he was ‘a profoundly disaffected individual’

Baroness Scotland has denied behaving improperly by hiring friends without advertising jobs, or by breaching protocol, or spending extravagantly.

But the veracity of those allegations was not tested in the tribunal, which was solely concerned with the Secretariat’s treatment of Mr Venuprasad after he raised concerns.