The Treasury has come under strong criticism for allowing a senior officer to hire his wife as a consultant and pay her almost £100,000 of taxpayers’ money.
There’s a surprise…!
David Partridge, former chief operating officer for the Revenue & Customs Prosecutions Office, was dismissed for gross misconduct after awarding his wife a lucrative consultancy contract and then becoming the company secretary for her firm.
Mr Partridge, a former official from the Serious Fraud Office, hired his wife, Michaela, to help out for six months with human resource support at Revenue & Customs Prosecutions when the Inland Revenue merged with Customs in 2005.
Another success story from Gordon Brown! Aren’t we lucky, to have such a wise head in charge of our country?
Her contract, finalised four weeks after Mr Partridge’s appointment, was not cleared in advance, despite the apparent conflict of interest – although the Treasury gave its approval afterwards. However, when the National Audit Office investigated the accounts in 2006 it described the appointment as “novel and contentious”.
Well, at least Partridge was dismissed. Wonder if anyone else will be?
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