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Letter from Mr Peter Welch to the Parliamentary
Commissioner for Standards
Many thanks for your letter of 12 March.
It is possible that in the early years Ian Greer
Associates paid fees to Sir Michael Grylls and then was subsequently
reimbursed by UTC. Certainly the routine office expenses which
IGA incurred on behalf of UTC were invoiced by IGA and reimbursed
by UTC. I simply cannot recall when UTC started paying fees to
Sir Michael Grylls, either directly or via IGA. Assuming the
files still exist, this information should be in the files.
I do well recall that UTC paid fees to Sir Michael
direct in the later years of the Campaign. I hold a cash book
which, amongst other things, records a payment to Sir Michael
in June 1990 of £5,000 + £750 VAT and another payment
in January 1991 of the same amount. I am thus confident that UTC
would not have reimbursed IGA for any fees due to Sir Michael
Grylls after June 1990.
As to VAT, I cannot see how, whether we paid
Sir Michael direct or not, it would have affected UTC's VAT liability.
UTC was unable to recover its input tax. IGA charged UTC VAT on
its fees and disbursements. Sir Michael also charged UTC with
VAT on his fees. Either way UTC would have ended up bearing VAT
at the standard rate on fees paid to Sir Michael.
Peter J Welch
13 March 1997
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