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Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money is at increased risk due to a failure to conduct sufficient checks on the now-collapsed finance firm that David Cameron lobbied for, a committee of MPs has found.
A a new report by the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC), on the lessons to be learned from the demise of Greensill Capital, the group of MPs have scrutinised a decision to allow the firm to be a lender under government-backed COVID support schemes.
The government-owned British Business Bank approved Greensill as a lender for both the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), as well as the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS).
Greensill loaned £400m under CLBILS, the maximum it was permitted to lend, and £18.5m under CBILS.
But in March this year, Greensill – who employed former prime minister Mr Cameron as an adviser – filed for insolvency.
In their report, the PAC found that “up to £335m of taxpayer money is at increased risk following the British Business Bank’s failure to conduct sufficient due diligence” into Greensill, when the firm applied to be an accredited lender under the COVID support schemes.
The MPs concluded that the Bank’s “approach to due diligence in accrediting Greensill was woefully inadequate” and criticised the Bank for striking the “wrong balance” between “making decisions quickly” during the pandemic and “protecting taxpayer interests”.
“In the case of Greensill, the Bank was insufficiently curious about media reports questioning Greensill’s lending model, its over-exposure to borrowers, and ethical standards until problems were clear and hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money left exposed,” their report added.
They also found that “a lack of information-sharing across government” had “once again…
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Source : skynews
