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Ken and lost £500,000: The inquiry begins
Ross Lydall, City Hall Editor11.12.07
An inquiry is being carried out into £500,000 of public funds given to a community group with close links to one of Ken Livingstone's top advisers.
The Mayor revealed that the London Development Agency, which awarded the money to the Brixton Base project, is conducting an "audit" to check the sums were spent properly.
This follows a series of articles in the Standard that have questioned mayoral aide Lee Jasper's role in at least £2.5 million of LDA grants.
Tomorrow pressure on the Mayor will increase when the London Assembly Liberal Democrats will call for him to invite the district auditor to investigate the LDA's grant awards.
Today Mr Livingstone used his City Hall press conference to attack the Standard's coverage, which he claimed was without substance and merely spread "hatred" against London's black and ethnic minority communities.
He criticised the journalist responsible for the reports, Andrew Gilligan, saying he was the most discredited reporter in Britain who was seeking to boost the mayoral campaign of Tory Boris Johnson.
Mr Livingstone said: "What is obnoxious about the scale of the campaign is the amount of space that was devoted to it and the complete lack of any substance.
"If any of these people had any substantial evidence, they would have not gone to [Greater London Authority chief executive] Anthony Mayer, they would have gone to the police. These allegations are basically 'fishing' expeditions."
Mr Livingstone was supported in his attack by Lord Ouseley, the former chairman of the Commission For Racial Equality; Richard Taylor, the father of murdered schoolboy Damilola, and black community leader the Rev Nims Obunge.
Mr Livingstone said he had received assurances from LDA chief executive Manny Lewis that there was an "audit trail" of funding for a number of organisations highlighted by the Standard.
Today Lord Ouseley, who said he was sure the Standard's reports were without foundation after having a phone conversation with Mr Jasper, said it was wrong for black organisations to be subject to disproportionate amounts of public scrutiny.
But he added: "Every item of public expenditure has to be accounted for. It has to be appropriately applied and represent value for money. In the context of the allegations made, the Mayor and GLA have a responsibility to do that."
Mr Obunge, who said Mr Jasper was a personal friend, said: "I have looked at the attacks on Mr Jasper and several black organisations, not as an attack on himself but as an attack on leadership in the black community and an attack on organisations within the black community. When such a campaign seeks to vilify our leaders it gives very little hope to our young people. We won't stand for it."
The inquiry is set to include the operation of Brixton Base. Shango B'Song, a film-maker who used the studios and production suite, told the Standard he had only seen £8,000 out of a £230,000 grant it was given by the LDA and had in fact financed the Base largely out of his own pocket.
Reader views (12)
I am black and a community leader as well. I think trying to drag race into this is purely an abuse to many black leaders across England who are striving to make a difference.
If Jasper is right he should step down and allow an independent investigation. It's immoral to make this an issue of race when it is not.
- Crispin Obudo, Tadworth, England
We need an independent audit of the LDA, not an internal one.
The attempt by the Mayor and his friends to link these allegations to the black community is at best disingenuous, and at worst deeply damaging - this is about alleged fraud, not about skin colour.
And Gilligan wasn't discredited in my view, he was proved right in the end over the dodgy dossier.
- Dougal, London
Livingstone is doing his usual thing of trying to obscure facts by discrediting the source of the report. This personal attack on Gilligan amounts to a libel and is absolutely typical of Livingstone's approach. In any event, what has Livingstone got to say about this disappearing cash?
I'm not surprised by the support from Ouseley, but he, too, seems to be completely uninterested in the possibility that some fraud has taken place.
Why do all these 'friends' and 'supporters' of Lee Jasper choose to interpret a report of appallingly casual usage of ratepayers' monies as some sort of racially motivated attack? Is it possible that they really do not want proper scrutiny or scrupulous accountability?
This is simple diversionary nonsense. Open the books, let the people of London see exactly how their cash is being distributed. Then again, maybe Ken and his Kronies have a few things to hide.
- Chuck Unsworth, London
It was interesting today that on the news charities trying to tackle gun crime and knife crime struggle for grants even though they appear to be trying to do something measurable rather than be even if genuine a divisive organisation based on skin colour.
I find the concept of many of these groups based on skin pigmentation distasteful as well. When will we get past this silly racism that bases anything on skin colour?
- Jonathan, Feltham, UK
"Today Mr Livingstone used his City Hall press conference to attack the Standard's coverage, which he claimed was without substance and merely spread "hatred" against London's black and ethnic minority communities".
How many times must the 'race' card be used to deflect criticism and investigation? This trick really is becoming very, very tiresome.
- Arthur Lincoln, Lincoln (UK)
Isn't it bad enough that Mr Gilligan's glory seeking activities have already led to the death of one individual, now he is playing the race card as countless others have done in the past, in the hopes of influencing an upcoming election. British blacks of afro-Caribbean descent do not hold political or economic power in this country, there STILL hasn't been a black member of the cabinet but yet again blacks are the convenient scapegoats for everything that goes wrong in the UK.
- Logan Mcgeary, London
£500,000 is peanuts compared with what Ken gives to his rich friends in the private utilities. Here on the Greenwich/Lewisham border in 2002 the A2 main road collapsed in a manner that Ken's people Transport for London officially labelled as caused by flowing water, but omitted to mention that the collapse happened right on top of a high pressure water pipe that had leaked repeatedly, including immediately before the collapse. Ken has officially admitted this disaster cost his budget more than £9 million, but also cost other Londoners a further £40 million or so. Most people would conclude from the available evidence that Thames Water's foreign owners are legally and morally bound to pay much of that money. Not Ken, though. The bottom line is that private utilities and local government are in league together against the rest of us.
- Anthony Durham, Greenwich, UK
I never have trusted Ken Livingstone - he is a smarmy Judas - always puts the foreigners before the indigenous population - I really don't know what he is doing living in the UK - India, Pakistan or Africa would be more suited to his taste I should think!
- Wooram, Alicante, Spain
The colour of the people should not be used as a shield in any public inquiry of public funds, £2.5m is a large sum of money, and it should be properly accounted for.
Lord Ouseley's allegation that black organisations are subjected to disproportionate amounts of public scrutiny does not hold water. If he is confident that the money is properly accounted for, he should welcome the inquiry.
- V Tan, London, UK
Instead of playing the tired old "race card", why not let independent auditors tell us, taxpayers, that everything is accounted for.
Black Londoners pay taxes too and they do not want their money wasted or misused.
- Beatriz, London
I am sick to death of inquiries that go no where and cost the taxpayer more money. I would much prefer members of the public to do the investigations.
Then we might get real answers!
- Peter, Herts
Who says politics are not corrupt. Now we know where the congestion charges are being diverted.
- Barrie Thompson, London Uk
