WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
MOD TO SHAME LAX CONTRACTORS
Liam Fox is to name and shame defence companies that fail to deliver military projects to the government on time, in a radical attempt to re-establish control over the department’s heavily overspent procurement budget. As the defence secretary wrestles with the consequences of slack spending on equipment programmes over many years, he will announce on Tuesday a raft of measures aimed at bringing order to the Ministry of Defence finances.
HEDGE FUNDS SWEEP FOR BUGS
Hedge fund managers are hiring security firms to sweep their offices and homes for listening devices, security experts say, in reaction to the US government’s insider trading investigations. Federal prosecutors in New York have filed criminal charges against more than 40 individuals.
PM SCRAPS PUBLIC SERVICE QUOTAS
David Cameron has scrapped the idea of a fixed proportion of public services having to be delivered by the private and voluntary sectors, even as he underlined his determination to end the public sector “monopoly” of provision. In an article in the Daily Telegraph on Monday, the prime minister promised that a forthcoming public services white paper would “create a new presumption . . . that public services should be open to a range of providers competing to offer a better service”.
CREDIT SUISSE BANKER ARRESTED
A Credit Suisse banker has been arrested in connection with a long-running US tax evasion investigation and could be one of several individuals likely to face charges this week as prosecutors turn their focus from institutions to bankers and wealthy clients, said people familiar with the matter. Christos Bagios was arrested about two weeks upon entering the US.
THE TIMES
CALLS UPPED FOR PORTUGAL BAILOUT
Fears that Portugal will need a European rescue intensified after the ECB re-activated its government bond-buying programme last week. The bank settled €711 million of government bond purchases, ending a pause in the scheme, which aims to contain public borrowing costs in the euro area periphery.
IRISH LEADER LOOKS TO GERMANY
The man destined to be the next leader of Ireland is counting on friends in high places to help his country out of its worst economic crisis since independence 90 years ago. Enda Kenny, the veteran Fine Gael leader, mentions his friendship with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, at every opportunity in the hope that she will help lower the punishing interest payments on Ireland’s €85 billion (£72 bn) bailout.
The Daily Telegraph
LARGE LENDERS NOT ALWAYS THE BEST
Britain’s biggest lenders do not necessarily offer the cheapest home loans, new research discloses. They occupy three quarters of the market, but only provide 145 – the equivalent of 29 per cent – of the top 500 mortgages, according to personal finance website Moneyfacts. It said ‘biggest isn’t always the best’ as in many cases the most competitive mortgage deals are not being offered by the largest mortgage lenders.
CALLS FOR BLACK MONEY AMNESTY
Srichand Hinduja, one of the UK’s most influential international business figures, has called on the Indian government to offer an amnesty to Indians holding an estimated one trillion dollars in “black money” in offshore bank accounts. His proposal was made in a letter to India’s finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MERKEL PLAYS DOWN HAMBURG LOSS
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, who suffered a stinging electoral defeat in Hamburg on Sunday, face a year of regional elections that could shift the balance of political power in the European Union’s most influential country.
EU TO VOTE ON ADMITTING GM FOOD
After years of political wrangling by European Union policy makers, rising food prices may be putting genetically modified, or GM, food on the menu. Officials are set to vote Tuesday on whether to allow trace amounts of unauthorized GM material in animal-feed imports, a move campaigners say could herald a shift in the bloc’s attitude to biotechnology and would mark a victory for the GM lobby, which has been pushing for a relaxation in the EU’s zero-tolerance rules on imports for years.