Sir Humphrey in trouble?
A senior civil servant who was allegedly involved in the decision by the Serious Fraud Office to drop its BAE/Saudi arms deal inquiry was close to the deal itself in the 1980s, today’s Daily Telegraph reports.
We now have a new Prime Minister, but the BAE arms affair - raised with Gordon Brown by Liberal Democrat Leader Ming Campbell at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday - rumbles on.
According to the newspaper, the head of the SFO, Robert Wardle, told Parliament last week that the memos he was shown to encourage him to drop the BAE investigation included “papers from Sir Richard Mottram“, the permanent secretary for intelligence and security.
In the 1980s Sir Richard was permanent secretary to former defence secretary Michael Heseltine, who played a key role negotiating the contract with the Saudis.
Sir Richard wrote in September 1985 to Charles Powell, private secretary to Margaret Thatcher, giving detailed updates on the deal.
Vincent Cable, Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said of Sir Richard’s role in the 1980s and his recent advice on the SFO probe: “There are enormous overlaps involving senior officials which casts great doubt on the impartiality of the judgements which have been made.”
The paper also reports that the SFO is to launch a new round of interviews under caution with BAE executives.
Sources close to the investigation said the new push would see BAE staff questioned for the first time on evidence uncovered in the SFO’s investigation into allegations of corruption outside Saudi Arabia.
Posted in Al Yamamah, BAE, Ming Campbell, Vince Cable |
