This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

An independent report has criticised the Metropolitan police for "blurring" professional boundaries and showing "poor judgment" in hiring the former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis as a PR consultant.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report criticised Scotland Yard's former head of press Dick Fedorcio personally for awarding a £1,000-a-day contract for advising the force to Wallis's company, Chamy Media.

The contract was given despite Wallis having served as deputy to Andy Coulson at a time when phone hacking is suspected to have been widespread at the now defunct tabloid.

Fedorcio, who was head of the Metropolitan police's powerful directorate of public affairs, was instrumental in awarding the contract, the IPCC found, a decision which it said damaged the force's integrity.

The IPCC deputy chair Deborah Glass said the decision to hire Wallis showed the Met was "oblivious to the perception of conflict". She said: "It is clear to me that professional boundaries became blurred, imprudent decisions taken and poor judgment shown by senior police personnel."

The IPCC found the Met's integrity had been "compromised" by the awarding of the contract and held Fedorcio responsible for hiring Wallis. It said: "It can be concluded that Mr Fedorcio was personally responsible for the decision to employ Mr Wallis. He failed to ensure that the requirements of the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] contract regulations and MPS standard operating procedure in respect of vetting were complied with and this has compromised the integrity of the MPS in the awarding of the contract."

Wallis was arrested by phone-hacking investigators last July. The news that he had been paid to advise the upper echelons of the Met set off a chain of events that saw the Met commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, and assistant commissioner John Yates resign, and Fedorcio was placed under investigation by the IPCC over the awarding of the contract.

Last month Fedorcio resigned after the force opened disciplinary proceedings against him.

Wallis worked for the Met from October 2009 to September 2010 for two days a month, and was paid £24,000.

The IPCC found Fedorcio had a disciplinary case to answer.

Its report said Fedorcio had:

• "Effectively employed" Wallis prior to a written contract being prepared or agreed.

• Compromised "the integrity and fairness of the competitive process" leading to the awarding of the contract as Wallis had already worked for the Met.

• Failed to seek "the approval of the Police Authority as outlined in the MPS policy" for hiring Wallis.

• Failed to follow Met policy in ensuring a vetting check was completed on Wallis.

Fedorcio had said he thought Yates, a personal friend of Wallis, had checked with the former tabloid executive to see if anything in his past could embarrass the Met.

The report says of Fedorcio's failure to adequately vet Wallis: "Mr Fedorcio's explanation of this was that he did not believe that a vetting process was required in the circumstances of this contract. This was not correct. The then head of vetting confirmed that in the circumstances Mr Wallis should have been vetted."

Wallis worked at the Met at a time when the force was dismissing Guardian reports that hacking had been widespread at the News of the World and known to senior executives.

The IPCC cleared Yates of impropriety over the hiring of Wallis's daughter for a civilian role in the Met, but said he had shown poor judgment.

Glass said of Fedorcio: "In neither case did we find evidence of corruption, but in both cases we found that policies were breached, and in the case of the former director of public affairs, Dick Fedorcio, that there was a case to answer in relation to misconduct.

"Despite the growing phone-hacking scandal, which must have exercised the MPS at a senior level and which was beginning to damage the reputation of the Metropolitan police in late 2009, senior people appear to have been oblivious to the perception of conflict."

Fedorcio was one of the most powerful figures in British policing, serving as a top adviser to every commissioner since Paul Condon.

In a statement the Met said: "Dick Fedorcio, the MPS director of public affairs for the past 14 years, took the decision to leave on 31 March 2012. During that period he made a very significant contribution to the work of the MPS. In common with other employees, MPS police staff have the right to resign, upon giving notice in accordance with their contracts of employment, whilst the subject of disciplinary investigation."