Examination of Witnesses (Questions 360-363)
ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER
JOHN YATES,
MS CARMEN
DOWD AND
MR DAVID
PERRY QC
23 OCTOBER 2007
Q360 Kelvin Hopkins: Can I ask one
question on a separate issue? It has been suggested to me that
right at the beginning it all started with apparently, allegedly,
secret loans which Jack Dromey, Treasurer of the Labour Party,
discovered. He raised the alarm because he did not want to be
implicated in something which may or may not have been legal,
and clearly he did absolutely the right thing. But at that point,
as and when these allegedly secret loans were being made, bankers
and accountants would have been involved. It has been suggested
to me that had this been a commercial company in business the
accountants and bankers and people who had been involved in the
transactions would have been in some serious trouble if they had
not behaved appropriately. I am not a lawyer and I am not an accountant,
but surely there are laws governing accountants and the way they
behave, governing the making of transactions of large sums of
money. They were so large it was not a question of unmarked, randomly
numbered fivers in your back pocket, even suitcases would not
have carried these sort of sums, so clearly money was transacted?
It has been suggested there was some pretty dodgy accountancy
involved. Is that something which could be investigated further
and are accountants to some extent culpable?
Assistant Commissioner Yates:
A financial audit and a financial investigation was part and parcel
of the inquiries we did, part and parcel of the evidence we provided
to the CPS and counsel, and for them to make a judgment on and
they have made that judgment.
Q361 Chairman: In terms of lessons
to be learned, so we do not miss the opportunity to ask you, is
there anything else you would like to say to us?
Assistant Commissioner Yates:
We have covered the process issue and HoLAC. On the Electoral
Commission's role, I do support Hayden Phillips' call about widening
its remit from encouraging people to a much stronger regulatory
role, which I think he has already advanced as a recommendation
in that area. I think we have covered clarity around the law,
clarity around the process and the Electoral Commission role,
which would be the three big issues for us.
Q362 Chairman: You have been as open
as I think you can be and I think we have had on the whole a positive
relationship throughout this difficult period.
Assistant Commissioner Yates:
Yes.
Q363 Chairman: We are very grateful
to you for keeping us in touch along the way and for the way in
which you have been willing to come back afterwards to talk to
us and I think it is for us to then reflect on some of the wider
lessons from this. We have had a very good generic discussion
and I hope we shall be able to use that to produce some useful
lessons. Thank you very much indeed.
Assistant Commissioner Yates:
Thank you.
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