Free tickets for the gravy train
Committee that NEVER says no to ministers cashing in
HUNDREDS of ministers and officials have cashed in on their time in office by picking up lucrative jobs in the private sector.
Yet the Whitehall committee that is supposed to scrutinise post-government appointments has a reputation for toothlessness. It nodded through George Osborne’s job at BlackRock and has not knocked back a single minister or civil servant in at least eight years.
Last year the Mail revealed that around two thirds of the ministers and officials are working in the very sectors they used to regulate while in government.
Those taking advantage of this ‘revolving door’ include Mr Osborne’s number two in the Coalition, Lib Dem former Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander. He is now working in China as vice-president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Despite rules against the use of insider information, these former public servants are pocketing jackpot wages from private firms.
On leaving a government department two thirds of ministers and officials now take a private job in the same sector.
Records kept by the official appointments watchdog, Acoba, show that since 2008 it has dealt with 371 individuals. Of these, 247, took a job in the same sector. Not one application for clearance was turned down.
Before taking up roles outside government, ministers and senior civil servants have to apply to Acoba, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which examines potential conflicts of interest.
Appointed under the auspices of the Cabinet Office, its job is to scruti- nise job applications and stop outgoing ministers and mandarins exploiting their ‘insider information’.
It can advise the Prime Minister that a particular minister or crown servant’s job application is unsuitable – but it has never wielded this power. Not all those who benefit from Acoba’s lax regime are former ministers.
In the Treasury, 17 out of the 21 civil servants who applied for clear- ance left public service for jobs in the banking or business worlds.
Of 41 from the Ministry of Defence, 32 were poached by arms firms or other defence-related companies, the Mail’s dossier shows. At the time, Bernard Jenkin, who chairs the Commons public affairs committee, demanded a complete revamp, saying: ‘Acoba is an advisory body, with no regulatory powers and is frequently ignored.’ And Alistair Graham, former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said: ‘The problem is we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.
‘It is very difficult to control these things. It may well be that people are abusing their past experience of government for personal advantage.’
Acoba itself is aware of the problem. Its chairman, Baroness Browning, told MPs last year that her committee was worried about the trend towards ex-ministers seeking employment in related sectors. She said the watchdog had neither ‘the resources nor the remit’ to make the significant changes required.
Paul Flynn, a Labour MP on the Commons public administration committee, said: ‘It’s a deep-seated and growing scandal, where MPs are allowed to prostitute their insider knowledge to the highest bidder.’