Former Toronto budget chief Tom Jakobek told a senior city official that he should not talk to investigators in the MFP computer-leasing scandal, a public inquiry was told yesterday.

"Mr. Jakobek called me on the afternoon of Oct. 9, (2001), the day before my interview. He told me I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life by going forward to this interview with KPMG," Jim Andrew, former executive director of the city's information technology division, testified.

KPMG was hired by Toronto's auditor, Jeffrey Griffiths, to conduct an investigation into the lease after questions were raised about it during the summer of 2001. KPMG's report was a key document in city council's February, 2002, decision to call the inquiry.

The bombshell testimony from Mr. Andrew could do more harm to Mr. Jakobek's mayoralty campaign, already badly damaged by his earlier admission that he had lied to the media about being on board a flight to a hockey game laid on by Dash Domi, the chief salesman for MFP during the leasing process.