From yesterday's Sindie City Diary:
"Oh dear, PricewaterhouseCoopers has found itself embroiled in the murky world of political scandal. Accusations are flying from the Labour quarters of City Hall that the (impartial) financial services firm could be a little too close to the Tories.The twisting tale of political intrigue begins at the start of the year when PWC was contracted by the board of the London Development Agency (LDA) to review its practices in the lead-up to the mayoral elections. No problem with that, but the delicate nose for controversy of LDA's Labour group leader, Len Duvall, began twitching soon after the new Mayor, Boris Johnson, announced a forensic audit panel to look into financial management at the LDA.
The panel, which is headed by the former Sunday Telegraph editor Patience Wheatcroft, is unashamedly pro-Tory, so Duvall says he was 'surprised' to see that a certain Andrew Gordon, head of forensic investigations at PWC, was among its members. And he was even more surprised to see PWC had been commissioned to do the work. Conflict of interest? Duvall appears to believe so and is now asking some tough questions of PWC.
'Are you happy that your firm should be seen so publicly to be engaged in supporting this political witch-hunt in an organisation you are under contract to?' he demands to know in a letter to the firm's chairman, Kieran Poynter. PWC refused to comment."
True in every detail. Here's the whole of Duvall's letter.
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