Crackdown on mandarins’ second jobs
Civil Service chief orders senior staff to declare controversial private roles in wake of Greensill row
‘This must only be done in a way which can maintain the integrity and impartiality of the Civil Service’
THE HEAD of the Civil Service has warned that senior officials with private sector second jobs threaten the “integrity and impartiality” of Whitehall, as he began a hunt for new conflicts of interest in the wake of the Greensill scandal.
Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, laid bare his “acute concern” in a letter to the heads of all government departments yesterday. He ordered them to search their ranks for high-level civil servants with external paid roles that may be problematic, setting the end of this week as the deadline.
It followed the row over Greensill Capital, the lender that collapsed last month, and the access its founder enjoyed to the heart of government during David Cameron’s administration. The former prime minister joined the finance firm after leaving office and directly lobbied Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, on its behalf.
The disclosure that Bill Crothers, a former head of Whitehall procurement, became an adviser to Greensill while still working in the Civil Service has led to criticism and raised fears that other mandarins may have paid external roles that could present a conflict of interest.
Now The Daily Telegraph has discovered that Sir John Manzoni, the Civil Service chief understood to have been responsible for signing off Mr Crothers’s position at Greensill, also held a secondary private sector role while in the Civil Service.
A third senior civil servant, Stephen Kelly, held roles in three private companies at the same time as a position within government.
Meanwhile, it can be disclosed that Lord Hogan-howe, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, was a paid adviser to Greensill at the same time as working at the heart of Whitehall.
Separately, a senior adviser to Mr Cameron in Downing Street encouraged a body representing small businesses to promote Greensill services to its members.
Boris Johnson yesterday admitted that it was not clear whether the “boundaries” between Whitehall and business had been “properly understood” and said he shared “widespread concern” about the Greensill disclosures. The Prime Minister stressed, however, that it was a “good idea in principle that top civil servants should be able to engage with business and should have experience of the private sector”. A second investigation by MPS
was opened into the Greensill controversy yesterday following Downing Street’s announcement of an independent lawyer-led inquiry on Monday.
MPS on the Treasury select committee said they would investigate after Tory MPS voted down a Labour motion for a parliamentary inquiry.
Mr Cameron’s spokesman said he would “respond positively” to any request to give evidence to MPS “when the terms of reference of each inquiry are clear and any invitations to provide evidence are received”. MPS on the committee said Mr Sunak was likely to be called to give evidence. Yesterday Mr Case warned that there must be “trans- parency and full and proper management of any outside interests” among senior civil servants, and stressed conflicts of interest were “not permitted”.
He said that any instances of conflicts of interest identified must be flagged “immediately” to him and to Darren Tierney, the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics chief.
While he acknowledged the importance of bringing outside expertise into Whitehall, Mr Case said: “This must only be done in a way which can maintain the integrity and impartiality of the Civil Service.”
Sir Keir Starmer said an “overhaul of the whole broken system” was needed, as he claimed the Greensill scandal was “just the tip of the iceberg” and added: “Dodgy contracts, privileged access, jobs for their mates – this is the return of Tory sleaze.”
Sir John, the former chief executive of the Civil Service and Cabinet Office permanent secretary, had a private sector role as a non-executive director at Sabmiller, the drinks company, which overlapped with his tenure in government that started in October 2014.
The Cabinet Office changed its position on the £100,000-a-year role twice, first saying he could keep it because there was no conflict of interest, but then deciding he could only perform the job unpaid, before finally saying the role would come to an end in summer 2015, according to reports at the time.
Mr Kelly joined the Government as adviser to the commercial management board from the private sector in September 2010. He then took on a salaried Civil Service role as chief operating officer of the UK Government in September 2012. He was also head of the Efficiency Reform Group, which was part of the Cabinet Office.
Between December 2010 and November 2012 he was the director of three tech companies – Opsview Ltd, Cloudapp Ltd and Sage People Ltd, Companies House records show.
Mr Kelly last night said he was not remunerated for the first two roles, which were related to “personal angel investments”, where an investor provides money to a start-up, but did not respond to questions about his role at Sage People.
Mr Kelly left Whitehall in November 2014 to become chief executive of Sage, the FTSE 100 software company that owns Sage People, of which he was a director between December 2010 and October 2012.
His spokesman said: “Upon his appointment as [UK Government] chief operating officer, Stephen resigned all outside commercial directorships, including roles at angel invested
companies, and did not attend board meetings relating to previous appointments.” Mr Kelly was appointed via an open recruitment process and passed all vetting procedures, she added.
Government transparency records show that after he left the post during his time as chief executive of Sage there were five meetings between the company and either Sir Jeremy Heywood, the former cabinet secretary, and Sir John, though it is unclear whether Mr Kelly was involved in these in any way.
At the time Sage was the UK’S largest tech company, Mr Kelly’s spokesman added, and therefore representatives would “meet regularly” with government officials.
Last night the issue around outside earnings spread to Mr Johnson’s team in Downing Street. Baroness Finn, his deputy chief of staff, has retained her shareholding of between 25 and 50 per cent in Francis Maude Associates Partners, a consultancy founded by Lord Maude of Horsham, the former Cabinet Office minister, that advises governments, ITV reported.
A government spokesman said: “Baroness Finn has declared all her relevant interests to the House of Lords, and in addition, complied with the Cabinet Office requirements for special advisers to declare outside interests. The Cabinet Office has a formal process to avoid conflicts of interest arising from such declared interests.”
Lord Maude, who is undertaking a review of Whitehall for the Prime Minister, last night defended his role in recruiting Mr Crothers to government.
“I gathered together a collection of the best commercial directors from around Whitehall and he was one of them. He was one of the capable commercial directors who had a big contribution to make by saving taxpayers’ money,” he told the Guardian.
It emerged last night that after the Saudi Crown Prince complained to the Prime Minister that the Premier League had “blocked” a £300million bid to buy Newcastle United, Mr Johnson instructed his aide Lord Lister to “investigate the complaint”. The Saudis withdrew from the deal last summer.
Lord Hogan-howe said his role advising Greensill usually involved one meeting each month and added: “I advised on product and organisational development but not on opportunities in the Cabinet Office or government.”
A Cabinet Office spokesman said the peer “transparently declared his interests, which were published online”.
The Telegraph attempted to reach Sir John Manzoni for comment.