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Meeting of the Parliament 03 March 2011

03 Mar 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

“Session 3 reports of the Public Audit Committee—key themes”

McGrigor, Jamie Con Highlands and Islands Watch on SPTV

I welcome the opportunity to take part in today’s debate. As Jackson Carlaw has indicated, the Scottish Conservatives value very highly the work of the Public Audit Committee. I welcome the report’s key themes, and I pay tribute to the committee members and the committee clerks and support staff for producing a sensible and very useful report, and for all their work in the current session of Parliament.

The committee has in this session produced some excellent reports that have been of genuine importance to my region of the Highlands and Islands. Those include the 2008 “Report on the 2006/07 Audit of the Western Isles Health Board” and the 2010 “Review of Cairngorm funicular railway”, both of which addressed significant issues of public concern.

More widely, the committee’s other reports this session have been especially good, such as those on free personal and nursing care and palliative care, and the review of the First ScotRail passenger rail franchise.

I agree strongly with the committee’s recommendations and requests for updates from the Scottish Government, particularly on the need for maximum transparency in the use of public funds and the decision-making processes of ministers and officials. As the committee suggests, the Government should provide an update on how it proposes to increase transparency in those key aspects.

In the context of financial transparency, I will touch on the gathering in 2009, which David Whitton mentioned, and on the committee’s good report on it, which was published last week. There could be no more appropriate case in which more financial transparency was needed from the Scottish Government. It is a sad and damning indictment of the Scottish Government’s handling of the affair that the report concludes that all due diligence was not undertaken before the Scottish Government provided a public loan; that the permanent secretary was not informed of the loan; and that the Scottish Government has undertaken no internal audit in relation to the gathering. Where were the caution and care for the interests of taxpayers’ money? Where were the caution and care for the wellbeing of the small businesses that ended up losing money for a job well done while the Government crowed over the gathering’s success?

My wish for greater financial transparency, as suggested in the report’s key themes, is driven by a desire to protect small businesses from facing financial hardship as they did after The Gathering 2009 Ltd collapsed. It is shameful that, to this day, a group of 12 creditors of The Gathering 2009 Ltd—from caterers to public relations professionals—is still trying desperately to obtain payment of £110,000. They are small companies, which are the backbone of our economy. They deserve far better from the Scottish Government, which—arguably—steered and controlled the one-off stand-alone event.

Losing money because of one’s own mistakes is one thing, but the bitterest pill for small businesses is not to be paid for work that was well done in good faith, because that leaves a rotten taste. The creditors are adamant that, had the Scottish Government not extended a loan of £180,000 to The Gathering 2009 Ltd, the event would have been cancelled. That would have been highly embarrassing for the Government, but at least the creditors would not have incurred debts. As the key themes report suggests, transparency might have prevented financial hardship in our small business sector.

The committee slates the City of Edinburgh Council’s role in the sorry saga. I hope that those who are involved will be fully held to account and that that will happen next week.

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Meeting of the Parliament 03 March 2011

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