Lord Pickles as chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) has said that improvements need to be made to the system that oversees private sector jobs for ministers and civil servants.
Lord Pickles has been giving evidence to the public administration committee, an appearance which has been long planned but has come in the midst of the Greensill row over politicians and civil servants moving into private sector roles.
David Cameron, has been at the centre of the row as he sought to gain emergency funding for collapsed bank, Greensill Capital, the controversy is over the fact he used a number of text messages to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, rather than going through more official channels.
Lord Pickles' in his role as chair of the Acoba committee is meant to ensure that politicians and civil servants are not in a position to use their insider knowledge of the people and processes of government, when they leave, to gain favourable access for their private sector position.
The problem being that if, in these new roles, they get too cosy with business it could lead to bias and corruption. The Acoba committee been criticised for having no power to enforce its role - and Eric Pickles appears to agree.
Rachel Reeves MP, wrote to Lord Pickles over the Cameron access saying that ‘Gaping holes in government accountability and transparency have extended to ACOBA, and this is of increasing importance as the Greensill scandal continues to grow’.
She was seeking clarification on the steps to be taken to make Acoba a more powerful institution in these matters referencing Lord Pickles own statement earlier in the month when he said that ‘Prime Ministers and ex-Prime Ministers are powerful people but it’s important that the system is resistant to powerful people…It is important that these things should be transparent and in the open.’
In response, the government have ordered that all civil servants must declare any second job and will be launching a ‘proper’ enquiry.
