Spelman faces RPA conflict of interest dilemma

Mark Spelman’s role as managing director of the global consulting company’s strategy service line has raised further questions about possible conflicts of interest arising from Ms Spelman’s appointment.

Defra has recently been advised by the National Audit Office (NAO) and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to consider replacing Accenture as the RPA’s main provider of IT systems and support.

A PAC report in December said the RPA’s ‘cumbersome and overly complex’ £350 million IT system was continuing to soak up large amounts of money’. It noted the  £84 million expenditure on Accenture in the last two financial years and said the ‘high spending looks set to continue’.

“The Department should prepare a business case to establish whether it would be better to invest in a new IT system instead,” the report said.

While there is no suggestion that Mr Spelman is directly involved in the RPA contract, Defra has acknowledged that a potential conflict of interest could force Ms Spelman to step back from the decision on whether it should be renewed. 

A Defra spokesperson said: “Like all new Ministers, the Secretary of State is going through the formal process of declaring all her and her husband’s interests under the terms of the Ministerial Code and will be discussing in the usual way what, if any, action is required to ensure there are no conflicts of interest.

“It is normally the case that in such circumstances where Ministers have an interest in a company, the Minister concerned plays no part in decisions on contracts relating to that company.”

Ms Spelman has already faced questions about a possible conflict of interest arising from her previous role as co-owner, with her husband, of food and biotechnology lobbying company Spelman, Cormack & Associates.

Mrs Spelman resigned her directorship of the firm in May last year, although her husband remains a director.

The Sunlight Centre, which campaigns for ‘open politics’, has written to Defra Permanent Secretary Helen Ghosh asking whether Ms Spelman will ‘step back from dealing with matters which impact on her former clients in the agri-business and bio-tech industry’.

The group also raised concerns over her previous role as sugar beet commodity secretary for the NFU and called for assurances this would not affect her role negotiating sugar policy in the EU.

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