A FORMER head of the Civil Service has said he is “baffled” as to how a former head of government procurement was able to take a job with Greensill Capital while still working in Whitehall.
Lord Kerslake said he had “real concerns” about the case of Bill Crothers.
“I can see no circumstances in which his appointment was acceptable,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
“He led on procurement – an area of absolutely intense scrutiny and where integrity is vital. The effect of what he did, if not the intent, was to bypass the Acoba rules.
“The situation was that Greensill were active in government even if they didn’t have a contract. So I am personally baffled as to how this got approved.”
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It comes as a Labour motion to set up a separate parliamentary inquiry into the Greensill scandal was rejected by MPs.
The motion by the main opposition in Westminster to set up a parliamentary inquiry into the affair - in addition to the independent review set up by Downing Street - was defeated by 357 votes to 262, a majority of 95.
The parliamentary inquiry would have seen former prime minister David Cameron and senior Tory ministers including Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock forced to give evidence in public. There is no such need for this in the independent inquiry the Government has set up.
Labour also criticised the appointment of Nigel Boardman, a legal expert whose father was a Tory minister, to lead the independent inquiry established by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
He is pausing his role as a non-executive director of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and will be unpaid for his work on the inquiry.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said “it’s a fact that Nigel Boardman is a very good friend of the Conservative Government” and “what is being proposed by the Government is not remotely fit for purpose”.
“It’s not an inquiry, it’s not independent, it’s an insult to us all,” she said.
READ MORE: Labour fail in bid for Greensill inquiry but committees look to investigate
Downing Street said Boardman was a “distinguished legal expert” and “an independent reviewer”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “He was asked to lead this review independently, he has been asked to do it thoroughly and promptly, and we trust him to do that.”
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