IN A PICKLES
New blow for Tories as watchdog peer says he warned them over ethics failures & demands reform
RULES on ministers and senior civil servants bagging private sector jobs need urgent reform, a Government ethics chief said.
It has also emerged David Cameron and ministers face six inquiries into the Greensill lobbying storm.
Lord Pickles, chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) said he was “really unhappy” with the rules and had been “warning of the possibility of a scandal” .
He told MPs there did not appear to be “any boundaries at all” between civil servants and the private sector.
The fallout from Cameron’s lobbying on behalf of his ex-employer, Lex Greensill, spilled over into Whitehall as it emerged a top official also worked for the financier while on the Government payroll.
Bill Crothers, an ex-Government chief commercial officer, began a part-time role at Greensill in September 2015 – with Cabinet Office approval – despite not leaving his civil service role until November that year.
Last night, Crothers was found to have broken ACOBA rules by failing to declare an unpaid role in 2016.
Lord Pickles wrote to Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove to alert him to the breach and ask him to take “appropriate action”.
In a letter to ACOBA, Crothers apologised for the “honest mistake” in failing to notify the watchdog about his position on the Global Board of Trustees of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply from 2016 to 2018. The latest development comes as civil service boss Simon
Case demanded that all senior mandarins declare any second jobs outside Government by today amid “acute concern” at the top of Government over the row.
Lord Pickles warned that the “revolving door” of top officials joining businesses has created the assumption they will be “looked after” by the next cohort of officials.
He told the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee yesterday that ACOBA scrutinised just 108 appointments out of 34,000 people quitting the civil service last year.
Lord Pickles said his “eyebrows did raise a full quarter inch” when he heard about Mr Crothers’ second job at Greensill Capital. He said: “If Mr Crothers had decided he wanted to have a milk round or something, I don’t think we would be terribly worried.
“But his particular position, in terms of running procurement and working for a commercial organisation, is something that does require a full and frank and transparent explanation.” The peer said Crothers was not an isolated incident, but he made it clear it was unusual for such a senior civil servant to have a second job.
He added: “I think it also highlights a number of anomalies in the system which I think require immediate address.”
Boris Johnson backed Lord Pickles over the need to clarify blurred lines between Whitehall and the private sector.
He told reporters: “You’re absolutely right that we need to understand completely what’s gone on here and I agree thoroughly with Lord Pickles.”