- Mark Hoban was given green light for a job after telling officials he had had no contact with accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Treasury documents show he actually met officials four times during his tenure
- Mr Hoban describes not remembering the meets as ‘an administrative cock-up’
Mark Hoban, the former financial secretary to the Treasury, told officials he had had no contact with accountancy firm PWC when he had actually met officials four times
A former minister gave misleading information to the watchdog which polices the so-called Whitehall revolving door, it emerged yesterday.
Mark Hoban, the former financial secretary to the Treasury, told officials he had had no contact with accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers when he was in post.
This led the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments to give him the green light to take up a job as adviser at PWC in 2015.
In its letter to Mr Hoban approving the position, he said it ‘took into account that you had no contact with PWC whilst you were Treasury minister’.
But Treasury documents reveal he had at least four meetings with PWC officials when he worked there – at a time when key reforms to the accounting profession were being considered.
Mr Hoban worked at PWC before entering Parliament in 2001. Eight years later he took non-cash donations worth £22,705 from the firm.
He rejoined PWC as a part-time advisor in the autumn of 2015, working two days a week for an undisclosed fee.
Mr Hoban told The Times that he had accidentally misled Acoba.
Mr Hoban rejoined PWC as a part-time advisor in the autumn of 2015, working two days a week for an undisclosed fee. Pictured is one of the firm’s London offices
‘I couldn’t remember having those meetings, which maybe says something about those meetings,’ he said.
‘It was an administrative cock-up.’
Mr Hoban was financial secretary to the Treasury between 2010 and 2013.
He met PWC once in 2010, twice in 2011 and again in 2012.