MPS have attacked the system of regulating the outside interests of government ministers and civil servants as “toothless”.
In a report today, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) said the regulatory system for scrutinising their post-public employment was ineffectual and did not inspire public confidence or respect.
The committee says the failures of governments to regulate this process properly have damaged public trust in politics and public institutions and led to repeated scandals.
Former Chancellor George Osborne, who last week announced he was quitting politics to concentrate on being editor of the London Evening Standard, combined his role as an MP with five other jobs.
SNP MP Ronnie Cowan, who sits on the PACAC, told The National the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACoBA) should "scrutinise ex-cabinet ministers before they take up appointments in positions where their ministerial experience and contacts would give them an unfair advantage." He said that under the current system minister were never prevented from taking up new roles outside parliament, with these "rubber-stamped" instead.
“The ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne is a prime example of the system failing, given the multiple jobs he took while a Member of Parliament. If he had come before our committee I would have asked how he managed to have five jobs as well as commit the necessary time to perform his duties as an MP.
“It’s clear the system is completely failing, and time and time again we see ex-Cabinet ministers using their influence and contacts to take up positions that would otherwise not have been available to them.
“It’s time ACoBA had a strengthened role in properly scrutinising what positions are available to those who once held public office at the highest level.”
The committee said ACoBA had failed to improve the climate of opinion around business appointments and highlighted loopholes, including civil servants at lower levels who have responsibility for commercial management or developing policy but are not regulated by it.
PACAC says there are gaps in ACoBA’s monitoring process, with insufficient attention paid to the principles that should govern business appointments, or the values which it should be seeking to promote.
The report said: “A system to manage conflicts of interest needs more than a code of rules and declarations.
"A principles-based system, if it is taught by leaders and learned by everyone to be intrinsic to the public service, creates an expectation that individuals will act with integrity, and regulate their own behaviour and attitudes according to those principles.”
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