LDA should not be Mayor's 'chequebook' - Tuffrey

9.15.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 16th Jul 2008

Commenting on the publication of the report of the Forensic Audit Panel, commissioned by Mayor Boris Johnson to look at financial management and controls at the London Development Agency, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on the London Assembly Mike Tuffrey said:

"The report highlights and endorses many of the concerns that Liberal Democrats on the Assembly raised time and again during the previous administration.

"However it is deeply worrying that in answer to my questions at the Mayor's Question Time meeting this morning, the Mayor refused to commit his administration not to use the LDA as his 'chequebook'.

The LDA should be a strategic organisation, with clear plans on how it spends public money, transparent to all. It should not be a body that only operates under the direction of the Mayor, his advisors or political appointees."

ENDS