• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

I might as well declare that I was the Chair of the Audit Committee of the LDA for a couple of years. I am very happy for that to be a matter of record as well; we did some very good work there. The District Audit is an independent service. There are of course two sides to this because politicians the world over use it as a foil for their political battles, but anyone in this Chamber, or indeed any member of the public, has a perfect right to contact the District Audit Service and to ask them to look...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

Will you just confirm, for the record, that I passed on a casework complaint to you, Manny, in 2005 regarding the Green Badge Taxi School and we had a considerable amount of correspondence; and that as a result there was an external audit commissioned of the organisation and the grant that was given? In response to that, you called in external legal advice and you sent a copy of that to me finally in April 2007, and at that time I felt that you had dealt with the complaint as thoroughly as could be done at the time.

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

Very well, Mr Lewis. Why did you then put out a press release which is put in these terms, in the light of what Mr Travers has just told us and in the light of the report which I take it you had read: 'Allegations of LDA corruption false'? Referring to the allegations in the first paragraph it says, 'The review finds these to be unfounded'? It does not do anything of the kind, does it?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

I think it is very telling that you did not approach the people making the allegations for clear evidence so that you could actually do this review properly. Therefore I am not convinced, and I do not think Londoners will be convinced, that you have done a proper review.

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

You have mentioned, Andrew, that this is your review. I want to be absolutely clear what the status of the District Auditor is in it now. Have you asked the District Auditor to do any further work or investigations?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

So, as far you are concerned, with the exception of the ones that have been referred to the police, is this the end of the matter?

• Question by: Tony Arbour
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

Can you understand, Manny, that Londoners will be rather foxed by a response of that kind; that you did not go to the source of the information which has been published and ask directly, and that you have merely dealt with it really at this remote distance?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

It would be premature, would it not?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

I do not have any problem with the entirety. Just to clarify ' I think this has been clarified fairly well ' but the question of referrals to the police is because, when serious allegations are made ' and of course people making serious allegations have a serious responsibility to reflect on the seriousness of the allegations they are making ' the LDA is not a detective agency itself. You can confirm that it is not a detective agency?

• Question by: Bob Blackman
• Meeting date: 16 January 2008

Has he given you a timescale for what he is going to do or how he is going to do anything?