A close aide of Ken Livingstone, suspended from his job after allegations of cronyism, failed to declare his chairmanship of a race-equality organisation that received thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money.

Lee Jasper, Mr Livingstone’s adviser on police and equalities, became the head of Equanomics UK in September after Mr Livingstone requested that it receive £15,000 in taxpayers’ cash.

Documents obtained by The Times show that Mr Jasper failed to declare his position. Mr Livingstone’s allies concede privately that he broke the rules, as the Mayor of London seeks to distance himself from the race chief.

Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick, Mr Livingstone’s rival candidates to become Mayor, both called for an independent inquiry into how much he knew of his adviser’s role in the body.

Equanomics UK, set up last year to address issues of wage inequalities on minority communities was “incubated” by the 1990 Trust, an organisation founded by Mr Jasper, according to its website. Funding was approved by the London Assembly and Mr Livingstone in April last year. According to Greater London Authority documents, £45,000 was set aside to hold a seminar on increased registration of ethnic minority communities, which was signed off by the Mayor.

A note written this month by Martin Clark, the GLA Executive director of Finance, said £15,000 of this was given to Equanomics UK to pay for an event on August 22 at Westminster City Hall where Jesse Jackson and Mr Jasper addressed more than 2,000 people. Equanomics’ board members include a number of associates of Mr Jasper whose organisations are under scrutiny by the police and the Assembly. Errol Walters is an associate of Mr Jasper who heads Brixton Base, which is being investigated by the police. Another is Joel O’Loughlin, who runs Diversity International. A £295,000 contract between the company and the London Development Agency is under investigation after claims that it was not put out to tender properly.

Mr Jasper was suspended by Mr Livingstone to “clear his name” but has not been reinstated despite a police statement that he is not under investigation. A spokesman for Mr Livingstone and Mr Jasper said: “When the Mayor signed off [the £45,000 funding] on April 2, 2007, Mr Jasper was not the chair of Equanomics. The Mayor could not have known of such a fact as it was not the case at the time. According to GLA records no money has been paid to Equanomics since Mr Jasper became chair.”

An Equanomics UK spokeswoman said Mr Jasper had received no money in expenses from the organisation which was not registered as a charity or as a company: “Lee Jasper became interim Chair of the network on September 26, 2007 – a holding position until the first annual convention which will be held in the summer.”

According to the GLA Code of Conduct, Mr Jasper should declare all positions of general control or management of any body exercising functions of a public nature. A spokeswoman for the Mayor said that he was not lobbied for money for Equanomics.

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