National Auditor Refuses to Sign off EHRC Race Police’s Accounts
The National Audit Office has refused to sign off the Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s £70 million accounts at the same time that Trevor Phillips has been formally accused of making money on the side from the taxpayer-funded organisation.
The EHRC, famous for its tally of anti-white legal actions (which include using taxpayer money to attack the British National Party) is now in disarray after Mr Phillips’s cronyism and financial shenanigans were exposed before Parliament’s human rights committee.
A preliminary report revealed that Mr Phillips had set up a private company called Equate which “advises” companies on equalities issues.
Equate clearly traded on the association of Mr Phillips with the EHRC, and that body’s chief executive of the EHRC, Nicola Brewer, advised him that there was a “perceived conflict of interest.”
As a result, Mr Phillips said, he stood down as a director of that company in October 2008.
However, the committee then heard that three staff members at the EHRC are now involved with a consultancy firm called Diversity And Management which has links to Equate.
Grilled on the link, Mr Phillips admitted to the committee that when Equate was offered work which he did not want to get involved with, it would sometimes be referred to Diversity And Management.
Realising the implications of his admission, Mr Phillips quickly tried to bluster his way through it by saying, “My business interest is not a novel arrangement.”
Mr Phillips’s side income was not the only topic to be raised before the committee.
He was also accused of “sanitising” internal criticism of his actions and of appointing underqualified people over the heads of more suitable people “because they were his friends.”
Dissension within the EHRC’s board recently saw four members resign in protest at Mr Phillips’s management and cronyism. The former chief executive also left the organisation at the same time.
One of the board members who resigned, Mr Ben Summerskill, said that Mr Phillips had appointed “toadies and cronies” to the EHRC, adding: “I am aware that Trevor as chairman has at least twice interfered inappropriately in the appointment of commissioners to promote the candidacy of either inappropriate or less well qualified personal friends of his.”
Professor Francesca Klug, a human rights academic, added: “Some would not dare challenge the chair. When we did, we were either ignored or isolated. There was an atmosphere that I experienced of intimidation in holding the chair to account.”
Mr Phillips dismissed suggestions that he should resign in the face of the evidence before the committee.
It is good to see that our tax money is being used so wisely.
