A senior official worked for Greensill Capital – the financial firm at the center of David Cameron’s lobbying – while still employed at Whitehall, it has been revealed.
Questions have now been asked as to why Bill Crothers did not consult a Whitehall watchdog before joining. Greensill as a director.
He started working for the company as an advisor in September 2015 and only left his post as government commercial director in the Cabinet Office, in charge of billions of pounds in government contracts, only in November of this year. .
Less than 10 months later, he became director of the recently collapsed finance company.
The latest revelation came as a result of correspondence between the Advisory Board on Business Appointments (ACOBA) and the Cabinet Office.
Lord Pickles, President of ACOBA, wrote today to Alex Chisholm, Director of Civil Service Operations, asking why Mr Crothers did not seek advice on joining Greensill.
According to the Cabinet Office, Mr Crothers did not need to consult ACOBA on his appointment to Greensill once he left the civil service – as usual for former ministers and senior officials taking on roles in the private sector – because he “was already working in an advisory capacity at Greensill before leaving the public service”.
The Cabinet Office had enabled him to advise Greensill part-time for his last three months in the public service.
Mr Pickles wrote: “The lack of transparency around this part-time job at Greensill may have left the misleading impression that Mr Crothers had willfully ignored the duty to seek advice.”
In a letter to Mr Pickles, Mr Crother said he had “completely followed the required process” and was told that no applications should be submitted to ACOBA as he was already working as a consultant to ACOBA. Greensill.
The revelation is likely to spark a new set of questions about Greensill’s connections …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-13 15:40:00
