No showdown after GLA forensic audit

It was billed as the smoking gun. The London press were primed. The former mayor, Ken Livingstone, and his deputies, were braced.

But the report of the Forensic Audit Panel, set up by new London mayor Boris Johnson, into mis-spending by the Greater London Authority, and in particular by the London Development Agency, has proved something of a damp squib.

WHAT HAPPENED?
Following a series of allegations about the involvement of Livingstone’s adviser Lee Jasper in securing funding for projects he was involved with, Johnson appointed Patience Wheatcroft, the former Sunday Telegraph editor, to conduct a ‘forensic audit’.

Aided by PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Andrew Gordon and a host of other (mainly Tory) notables, the panel released its report last week.

It identified savings that could be made at the GLA, from cancelling projects, such as the Rise festival, by ‘rationalising’ foreign embassies set up by the previous mayor, and through other overlaps.

But it was at the LDA that the report was really expected to hit home.

What it in fact drew attention to was failures in monitoring projects and spending: ‘We understand that the LDA’s internal auditors, who currently provide internal audit services to the LDA, have not been asked to visit any projects as part of their work,’ said the report. It reiterated that there were question marks over some projects.

In interviews, Wheatcroft also said that she thought ‘tens of millions’ had been wasted, and that the body had been used as ‘The Mayor’s chequebook’.

WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN?
Politically, the fallout seems limited: the panel admitted that it found ineptitude rather than corruption.

And as Livingstone said, if he and his colleagues exerted pressure on the LDA to deliver projects they were interested in, that could partly be defended as part of the democratic process.

‘The electorate select a mayor whose values they share and judgment they trust, and then it is up to that person to get on and take decisions for London. If you don’t like those decisions you can be pejorative and call them “whims,” or you can say that the mayor is setting our strategic priorities,’ he said.

But some forensic scrutiny will go on. KPMG, alongside DLA Piper, are considering some high-risk projects to see if there has been any criminal activity.

Jasper was warned by Wheatcroft that his involvement was still to be investigated by the police, and that he should not feel exonerated.

The battle to get to the bottom of what did or did not go on at City Hall looks set to go on for some time yet.