London Economics School Official Quits in Qaddafi

London Economics School Official Quits in Qaddafi Scandal


LONDON — Sir Howard Davies, the director of the London School of Economics, has resigned over damage to the school’s reputation caused by links between the prestigious university and the regime of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
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The university also announced late Thursday that an independent inquiry, led by Harry Woolf, the former Lord chief justice of England and Wales, would examine the university’s relationship with Libya and the Libyan leader’s son, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a London School of Economics graduate.

In his letter of resignation, Sir Howard said he had concluded that it would “be right for me to step down, even though I know that this will cause difficulty for the institution I have come to love.” He added, “The short point is that I am responsible for the school’s reputation, and that has suffered.”

On Tuesday, the school announced it would divert a donation of $488,000 it had received from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation to establish a scholarship fund for North African students. At the time, Sir Howard said, “We took a risk on that, and I think it’s right to say that that risk has backfired on us.” He said he felt “embarrassed.”

“I’m not ashamed of what we’ve done with the money but I do think it’s clear that the source of it now is not one we wish to be associated with, he said.

Sir Howard offered his resignation to the school’s governing council on Tuesday night but was asked to stay on. In an interview with the BBC on Friday morning he said that he remained uneasy about his decision to accept the donation from the Qaddafi foundation and also about having himself agreed to act as a financial consultant to the Libyan government. In 2007 the university received a payment of $50,000 after Sir Howard gave advice to the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

“The more I thought about it, there were these two things which I found hard to defend,” he said.

The controversy began on Feb. 21, when Seif Qaddafi made a televised speech warning protesters that his father’s supporters would fight “to the last bullet” and that “rivers of blood” would flow in the country. Students then occupied the faculty dining room and Sir Howard’s office.

More recently the controversy widened to include accusations that portions of Seif Qaddafi’s 2007 doctoral dissertation may have been plagiarized or ghost-written.

On Thursday, the consulting firm Monitor Group, based in Cambridge, Mass., acknowledged in a statement that part of the work for which it had been paid a fee of $250,000 a month by the Libyan government included helping Seif Qaddafi with his doctoral dissertation.

Lord Woolf’s inquiry is expected to look into the integrity of Mr. Qaddafi’s dissertation as well as the university’s financial relationship with the Libyan government, which in addition to the donation and the fee paid for Sir Howard’s advice includes a £2.2 million contract between L.S.E. Enterprise and Libya’s Economic Development Board to train Libyan civil servants and professionals.