Jennifer Arcuri’s £100,000 grant deemed ‘appropriate’ by government audit
A £100,000 grant given to Boris Johnson’s American friend Jennifer Arcuri has been deemed to be “not unreasonable” and “appropriate”, despite the funding being intended to grow the UK tech sector.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) grant was given to Arcuri’s US-based company Hacker House earlier this year.
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The tech company was awarded the cyber skills grant, despite it being “designed to increase the number and diversity of those working in the UK’s cyber security industry”, according to the department.
A report from the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) today said that the decision to give the grant was based on the assumption that Hacker House could grow the UK’s cyber security sector from afar.
“Documents seen by GIAA reflected the [DCMS] view that the initiative proposed by Hacker House Ltd may, in the longer term, provide an effective solution that identifies, trains and places candidates into cyber security roles.
“This was in line with the objectives of the [grant program].”
However, the report also found Hacker House did not meet one of the gateway requirements for the grant, but was still allowed to proceed.
One of the stipulations of the grant was that companies could not apply for grants that are more than 50 per cent of the company’s annual income.
Arcuri’s initially applied for £273,000 funding, but listed the company as having £0 annual income.
The audit said that all three companies who were awarded the grant did not meet this requirement.
On this basis, the report found it was “not unreasonable” to award £100,000 to Hacker House.
“This review concludes that although the initial gateway questions were not considered for
the 19 applications received, the rationale for considering all applications was not
unreasonable,” the report read.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct is also currently investigating potential conflicts of interest in regards to Johnson’s dealings with Arcuri.
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Arcuri was friends with the Prime Minister when he was mayor of London and benefitted from a grant from London & Partners – a mayoral foundation – during his time at City Hall.
He also invited her on overseas trade missions, despite not having the proper qualifications.