Ken Livingstone's mysterious missing millions

Train-based alcohol ban aside, Boris Johnson has been keeping a remarkably low profile since his installation as Mayor of London a few weeks back. Theories have run rampant around the Westmonster office as to what he's been up to, and we managed to come up with two relatively convincing scenarios - BoJo has either been very busy a) attempting to comb his hair into something approaching manageable, a process which has involved the recruitment of eighty-two professional stylists, or he's b) been calling in investigators to expose financial corruption within the office of predecessor Ken Livingstone.

Anyone who bet on B? Come and get your prize! We've got 39 bottles of hugely expensive fine wine - as found tucked away in Livingstone's office - to give away!*

Patience Wheatcroft is a former financial journalist who was called in by the mop-topped mayor to rifle through records and take a good long look at the Livingstone administration's spending habits. Her conclusions? They ain't pretty:

"It was an organisation where success seems to have been measured by money [paid] out rather than objectively determined results. Monitoring of projects was scant. Evaluation of effectiveness minimal. The culture of the place was that underspending was deemed to be a failure.

We believe that there is evidence that GLA [Greater London Authority] systems and processes were not followed, and that cash may have gone missing or been misappropriated and a criminal act may have been committed.”

You can find a run-through of the alleged financial wrongdoings towards the end of this Times article. Needless to say - with police involvement now confirmed - this is going to be serious.

* We haven't really got 39 bottles of hugely expensive fine wine - as found tucked away in Livingstone's office - to give away. We could probably manage a can of Skol, if anyone's interested? Just don't take it on public transport, mind.

Written by C J Davies on 7 Jun 2008 10:20 PM. Permalink