A former energy minister has apologised for “misunderstanding the rules” after she had denied breaching the ministerial code of conduct.
Baroness Sandip Verma and her family firm had reportedly signed multimillion-pound deals to supply Uganda’s government with solar power equipment in what had been reported as a breach of ministerial conduct. The Guardian had previously reported that the Conservative peer’s company, Nexus Green, had signed two solar deals worth over £88m after meetings with Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni.
Lady Verma was the junior minister in the Department of Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015, and then for International Development (DfID) from May 2015 to July 2016. Until recently, she had insisted that she was not obligated to inform the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) about these deals. But Acoba in its letters have shown that she has been rebuked for a breach of ministerial rules by failing to seek advice about her role as a director in the firm.
And now she has apologised to a parliamentary watchdog, stating her failure to understand the rules, for failing to seek advice and insisting that her role is unpaid, advisory and has no executive powers.
She wrote, “My son, who is the CEO, asked me to join in an advisory capacity only because of my many years of business experience.
“I am truly sorry for my misunderstanding of the rules which I accept is my failing and sincerely hope that the committee will accept my deepest regret at this failure. I would not deliberately disrespect the rules and sincerely apologise to the committee.”
Lady Verma and her son Rikki are Nexus Green’s only directors and have no previous experience in the industry. Yet, they managed to sign solar deals with the Ugandan government whereby most of the deal was expected to be financed with a loan from UK Export Finance, a government department. According to rules to ensure transparency, ministers are supposed to declare all roles and jobs for up to two years after leaving office.
Lord Pickles, the chair of Acoba, wrote to Verma on 17 September, had earlier written, “Failure to seek advice is a clear breach of the requirement set out in the ministerial code and the government’s appointment rules,” he wrote.
