Examination of Witnesses (Questions 140-144)
POSTCOMM
Q140 Mr Bacon: You did not think
it was relevant! Excuse me. Hang on a minute, because you have
given long answers and I do not have long. We have other things
to talk about actually. You did not think it was relevant to tell
us that you were about to publish important documents about the
future of the universal service obligation when we were asking
you questions about the future of the universal service obligation?
You did not think it was relevant?
Ms Chambers: You were asking me
very specific questions, I believe, about Saturday deliveries.
Mr Bacon: My question to you now is about
why you did not tell this Committee that you were about to publish
important documents on the future of the universal service obligation
when we were asking you questions about the future of the universal
service obligation.
Chairman: That very evening.
Q141 Mr Bacon: That is the point,
and your answer is you did not think it was relevant!
Ms Chambers: I did not believe
that you were asking me general questions about future policy.
The Independent Review is about future policy and about future
changes to universal service. What I thought you were asking me
about, based on the leaks to the Daily Telegraph and other
papers, were some very specific questions—
Q142 Mr Bacon: ... was the threats
to the future of the universal service obligation. I remember
asking you that. The instant case happened to be Saturday mornings
but I was asking you about threats to the future of the universal
service obligation. I would have thought that would have been
obvious to a semi-lobotomised chimpanzee, let alone to somebody
of your considerable education and talent.
Ms Chambers: I honestly do not
remember you—and maybe I am remembering it wrong—I
do not remember you asking me very general questions about the
universal service and how it might be changed. I remember being
asked some very specific questions about Saturday deliveries,
and those, I believe, I answered pretty fully. If I had thought
you were asking me much more general questions about the future
of the universal service, and you knew the Independent Review
was about to receive all the submissions, you had an opportunity
to ask me about other general issues if you had so wished and
I would have answered them.
Mr Bacon: I think you had an opportunity
to tell us a lot more than you did, frankly. I have no further
questions, Chairman.
Q143 Chairman: I think that concludes
our hearing. I have to say, Ms Chambers, I am very dissatisfied
with your conduct. I think that you are playing absolutely by
the letter of the law, and we expect witnesses to be honest with
us and give us an answer to the spirit of the law as well, to
give us full and frank answers. We do not expect to see accounting
officers coming before us at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and giving
as narrow an answer as possible, and then about three hours later
making an announcement on the national news, frankly, on the same
areas we were asking about.
Ms Chambers: I am sorry, Chairman.
I do not believe it was dishonest.
Q144 Chairman: I will let you have
the last word because I have criticised you in public session
but it is important that we establish this principle now for future
accounting officers appearing in front of this Committee. I will
now give you the last word to defend your reputation.
Ms Chambers: Thank you. Nothing
I said was dishonest. I was not attempting to give as narrow an
answer as possible. I did know that we were going to make an announcement.
I did not feel—and maybe this was a misjudgment—it
was appropriate for me to use your hearing to promote our views
on an area which I thought was a completely different area of
future policy recommendation than the subject matter of the NAO
Report and, indeed, your rather wider questions. I thought that
if I had sought to use your Committee to promote my own views,
you would have criticised me for trying to do that. Maybe this
was a wrong judgment but it was a judgment that I felt at the
time was right and I was not meaning any discourtesy. I am sorry
for that.
Chairman: Thank you very much, Ms Chambers.
That concludes this hearing.
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