The latest to get caught in the Greensill wildfire, top civil officers of the UK government have been demanded by senior officials to disclose any private work they may take on. A report by The Times reveals Cabinet Secretary Simon Case ordered all departments to tell him immediately if senior civil servants had paid roles or external interests that may conflict with their primary job.
He was quoted as saying there was “acute concern” at the top of White Hall about the “serious issues” raised by David Cameron's lobbying work for financial company, Greensill Capital, that collapsed last month. Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced questions in the Parliament, and seemed defensive on what lines may have been crossed. He said, “I do think it is a good idea in principle that top civil servants should be able to engage with business and to have experience of the private sector. When I look at the accounts I'm reading today, it's not clear that those boundaries have been properly understood.”
The Greensill-Cameron scandal has already taken in many top ministers in its clutches. The company's March collapse put thousands of jobs at risk at Liberty Steel's UK plants. Conservative MP and No. 10's anti-corruption champion, John Pen Rose called for an overhaul of lobbying rules, saying the “future of our democracy” was at stake. He said it was too difficult to “link up who ministers have met with, who the lobbyists are working for, with who is donating money to which political party.”
