Emails leaked to the Daily Mail have revealed that last November then-UK Trade & Investment chief executive Sir Andrew Cahn asked his staff to rush through spending bids in order to take advantage of a Foreign Office underspend.

The emails, in which Cahn (pictured above) appears to prioritise UKTI spending power over prudent use of public funds, have drawn criticism from shadow foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, who suggested that FCO financial planning “in is chaos”.

Cahn, who left UKTI  this week and will start a new role with investment bank Nomura in April, sent an email to senior colleagues in November last year saying the Foreign Office was "heading for an underspend and wants to get money out of the door".

He added: "If we can spend money in this financial year on a one-off basis, then we can have at least £1 million. Can you think what we might do with such money? In the past, it would have been marketing, but Cabinet Office restrictions may make that difficult.”

Cahn’s email suggested a number of ideas for making use of the money including ‘inward investment’ ideas such as a leadership conference and funding visits to Britain from each UKTI post around the world.

Susan Haird, who took over as UKTI's acting chief executive after Cahn's departure, responded to the email saying the visits were a “good idea and money can be spent swiftly on those”.

The Daily Mail reports that UKTI sources “accepted the language used in the exchanges was ‘not at all appropriate’”.

A spokeswoman for UKTI told the paper: "The Government does not comment on leaked documents. Government spend is subject to rigorous value for money checks to ensure appropriate return for taxpayer funding.
"All of UKTI's services are subject to independent assessment. For every £1 of taxpayers' money spent, our customers tell us that this generates £19 of additional profit for their businesses. UKTI has not drawn any additional resource from the FCO this financial year.”

Written by Civil Service World