London audit reveals 'money wasted'

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Patience Wheatcroft, who headed the Forensic Audit Panel, said former mayor Ken Livingstone and his team - including controversial adviser Lee Jasper - did not appear to have breached protocols.

"We are not giving Mr Jasper's actions a clean bill of health. That's something that the Met (Police) is looking at," she said at a briefing prior to publication of the panel's final report.

Scotland Yard is currently carrying out five investigations, including one into the Caribbean Showcase event which was partly organised by Mr Jasper.

During the inquiries nine people have been arrested and all have been released on bail. Mr Jasper was not among those arrested.

He stepped down in March on the eve of a London Assembly meeting at which he was due to be publicly questioned about the alleged misuse of City Hall funds. He has denied any impropriety.

"Whatever the outcome of these investigations, we are of the view that it was ineptitude rather than corruption that was the biggest blight of the London Development Agency (LDA)," Mrs Wheatcroft said.

"As far as we are aware Lee Jasper and other mayoral advisers - in their dealings with the London Assembly and other organisations such as the LDA - didn't break rules. These people had a lot of power and they used it."

She called for the Greater London Authority to establish protocols for the future to govern the role of mayoral advisers.

The panel's report is calling for the LDA to be "reshaped" and for about £8 million of savings to be made at the GLA.