Isle of Wight UKIP councillor Daryll Pitcher is named in a European parliament audit report that alleges misuse of European funds.
Cllr Pitcher is one of three UKIP party members reported to have been given contracts to run opinion polls funded by the EU money via the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE) group.
He was reported to have carried out consultancy work for ADDE and benefited from contracts worth €21,000 during May to September 2015.
Latterly Daryll contacted OnTheWight, with the slim reply of:
“All I can say is that there was no wrong doing on my part, I had a contract which I honoured.”
Following this OnTheWight put a small number of specific question to him, but he wouldn’t answer, only offering that we speak to ADDE.
Call for misspent funds to be returned
The Guardian report that the European Parliament is likely to ask ADDE for €173,000 (£148,000) of misspent funds to be repaid following a breach in the rules.
EU money cannot be used to fund national election campaigns and referendums.
UKIP: “We’re very tight on these things”
OnTheWight spoke to UKIP’s head of press, who said,
“We’re entertained at the leak, coming three days before the report is going to be officially released.
“We’re aware that some parties are looking at us very closely, so we’re very tight on these things – making sure everything complies. The work would have been tender properly and checked.
“We feel they’re moving the goalposts after the whistle has blown.”
Work carried out
They went on to add that Cllr Pitcher’s work was for specifically for ADDE, not UKIP and that it was likely to be for “political intelligence and research”.
OnTheWight attempted to the ADDE, but at time of going to press, had received no response.
Update 18.Nov.16 – Added the response from Mr Pitcher to upper section of the article.
Source: The Guardian
