Cameron mandarin in yet another quiz

THE David Cameron mandarin who is under fire for taking a job at Greensill Capital while still working for the government has admitted failing to declare another appointment.

Bill Crothers was last night told by watchdog Lord Pickles that he broke the rules by failing to seek approval for an unpaid role with a professional body after leaving Whitehall.

He has now been reported to Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove for ‘appropriate action’ – which could see him barred from any future honours. Mr

Crothers, pictured, told appointments adviser Lord Pickles he had made an ‘honest mistake’ in not declaring he wanted to join the trustees’ board of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply in 2016, the year after he left his job as Government procurement chief to work full-time for Greensill.

As two more Parliamentary inquiries were launched in the wake of Greensill’s collapse and Mr Cameron’s lobbying for the lender, Lord Pickles told MPs of loopholes which mean not all jobs taken by ex-ministers and civil servants are fully checked. Calling for a revamp of the rules, the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) said his ‘eyebrows raised the full quarter-inch’ when he discovered Mr Crothers had been allowed to become a board adviser to Greensill. It meant when he left to become full-time director of the firm a year later in 2016 he had not needed to seek approval from Acoba.

Lord Pickles told the public administration committee the position of financier Lex Greensill within No 10 highlighted other ‘anomalies’ in the system, which forces only former ministers and top officials to seek approval for new jobs and only within two years of leaving office.

‘Contractors, consultants, people who arrive and offer assistance... maybe as Mr Greensill did... are not covered at all. I think that needs addressing and... addressing urgently.’