Peoples Republic of South Devon

Giles Chichester

June 19th, 2008

posted by Cptn

We got in touch with South West MEP Giles Chichester last week. With shadow frontbencher David Davis falling on Britannia’s sword of justice forged in the fire of a magma crater (of course we mean Magna Carter) over the issue of 48 days detention, we wondered where that left the Tory European Parliamentarian and his expenses.

Take it away Giles:

“I have used my family company as a service provider to support my parliamentary work since I was elected to the European Parliament in 1994. The activities of the company have been openly logged with Companies House in the UK, and it has an official contract formally registered with the European Parliament. It has been my understanding that this arrangement has, at all times, been fully compatible with the parliamentary rules.

“Eighteen months ago, I received a letter from the Quaestors’ office suggesting there might be a conflict of interest regarding the company.

“I replied to this letter setting out my belief that the arrangements were fully in compliance with the rules of Parliament. I received no response from the Parliament authorities.

“Following recent press reports regarding the use of my parliamentary allowances, I personally sought a meeting yesterday with the European parliamentary services to clarify the situation. At this meeting I was informed that there had been a change in the rules relating to service providers, a change that took effect in 2003. This had not been brought to my attention when I renewed the contract in 2004, again registering it with the Parliament. As a result of this information, I immediately cancelled the contract with the company.

“I will now work with the Parliament services to provide a detailed breakdown of all monies received and expended since 2003 which will demonstrate they are fully accounted for. In addition, I will set out in detail the circumstances surrounding the technical breach of the rules to the Party Chairman, and make available to her a full statement of my parliamentary expenses as requested.

“At all times, I have acted in good faith within the original parliamentary rules, and what I believed the current rules of the European Parliament still to be. I recognise that it was my responsibility to have learned about the change in rules. I confirm that there has been no misappropriation of any funds.

“I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to all colleagues for the adverse publicity that this has understandably created.”

Thanks for that Giles – and we’re sure you mean to apologise to your constituents, too. Bureaucracy, ehh?
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