The Audit Commission had money invested in Icelandic banks

The Independent report that: "Audit chiefs invested £10m in Iceland - The official local government spending watchdog today became the latest body to be caught up in the Icelandic banking collapse.

The Audit Commission confirmed that it had £10 million - around 4 per cent of its annual turnover - invested in two Icelandic banks, Landsbanki Islands and the Heritable Bank.

The most recent deposit was made only three months ago.

The disclosure is potentially embarrassing for the commission which is charged with ensuring councils spend public money "economically, efficiently and effectively"."

What more needs to be said, if the Audit commission couldn't read the signs of problems with Icelandic banks in June/July then they really lack intelligent thought.

The article includes these two thoughts, first:

"In its statement, it said that at the time the banks had a top quality F1 credit rating and that preliminary investigations indicated that the deposits were made in full compliance with its own guidelines on prudent investment."

Is that true, I thought Icelandic banks had been downgraded a while back, I will check...

and second:

"It is not expected that the deposits will impact on the Audit Commission's plans, operations or staffing."

Of course not, but only because the taxpayer will pay to bail out the Audit Commission.