HER BBC CLAIMS REBUTTED
YesterdaY on radio 4, Baroness scotland brazenly rejected a series of allegations against her. Here we set out her claims and what the leaked Commonwealth documents actually show . . .
HER CLAIM: The suggestion that she has spent ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds renovating’ her official London residence is ‘absolutely untrue’.
FACT: A memo dated May 13 and sent to the ‘Corporate Group’ of senior Commonwealth staffers, written by senior aide Gary Dunn and leaked to the Mail, stated that the ‘total cost’ of the refurbishment had been budgeted at an ‘original £230k’, but that ‘additional works’ requested by Baroness Scotland would increase it to ‘near £450k’. (Indeed, later during her Radio 4 interview, she admitted the cost was ‘maybe £330,000’.)
HER CLAIM: Allegations that she wanted to spend £4,000 on a mirror-lined cupboard and £2,000 on a dishwasher were ‘just untrue’ and ‘absolute nonsense’.
FACT: A spreadsheet detailing the pricing schedule for ‘additional works’ demanded by her, emailed by Paul Hammersley, Facilities Management head at the Commonwealth, to Gary Dunn, on May 6, included £2,000 to ‘install additional dishwasher to LGF [lower ground floor] kitchen’, £4,020 for a ‘LHS [left-hand side] cupboard, mirror-clad interior to match RHS [right-hand side]’ in the reception room.
HER CLAIM: ‘The thing that’s quite extraordinary is that we have said “this is not true” again and again and again.’
FACT: The Mail has asked dozens of questions about specific aspects of the refurbishment, and its budget on multiple occasions, dating from June 6. Their only response has been a stock statement: ‘The budget was agreed prior to the Secretary-General taking office and no increase in that budget has been authorised or agreed by the Secretary-General.’
HER CLAIM: Rejecting allegations of extravagance, she said: ‘There are no chandeliers.’
FACT: The May 6 pricing schedule includes a £1,200 fee to ‘relocate the wall lights/ chandelier from the first-floor sitting room’. It also contains an uncosted fee for a ‘chandelier hanging from skylight dropping down into staircase and illuminating the top three floors’. On May 5, Gary Dunn emailed Scotland’s aide Joe Phelan to say: ‘Some [of her] requests are extremely expensive, such as the chandelier.’ (The Mail inquired about the chandeliers in June — after which it is unclear whether the project went ahead.)
HER CLAIM: ‘We have absolutely complied with procurement rules’ for Lord Patel (fellow Labour peer, whose firm was paid £30,000 a month to provide ‘strategic advice.’)
FACT: On April 1, Gary Dunn wrote to Scotland stating that Patel could only be employed, without the job going out to tender, if they can get ‘a waiver from the Secretariat’s preferred procurement practices’. (A waiver was duly granted.)
HER CLAIM: She hired Patel on £30,000 a month because ‘I wanted the very best opportunity and the very best people’ to carry out a review of the management of the Commonwealth.
FACT: Lord Patel, an academic, is an expert on the NHS with no track record of experience in foreign policy or running a diplomatic organisation. His Who’s Who entry does not suggest he’s ever worked as a management consultant. He has no obvious qualification for the lucrative, publicly funded job apart from his friendship with Baroness Scotland.