Consultant Outrage
March 1st, 2010 | by Bill Butler MSP |I have obtained evidence from the Scottish Government which reveals that the expenditure on consultants by the SFT, a body which has yet to build a school or hospital after being launched by the First Minister in 2007, has nearly quadrupled over the past six months.
Despite spending over £2000 a day on consultancy fees its website still boldly claims the SFT will “reduce the reliance on expensive consultants.”
Payments made by the Scottish Government’s flagship body include: £137,289 to PriceWaterhouseCooper for financial advice; £121,457 to Pinsent Masons for legal advice (despite the Scottish Government having over 120 in-house lawyers); and £55,200 to Hays Recruitment to employ nine members of staff (bypassing the Government’s own recruitment services)
It’s the latest in a series of damaging revelations regarding the quanqo.
Last year I obtained figures which showed how the SFT had spent nearly £120,000 on consultants over a four month period and uncovered its attempt to ‘bury’ on its website over the Christmas holidays details of the £1 million salary package enjoyed by 12 senior staff members.
Many people ask me what SFT actually stands for – based on this evidence it must be ‘Still Fleecing Taxpayers.’
If the SFT provides ‘in house expertise’ how come it is shelling out over £2000 a day for external legal and recruitment advice, especially when the Scottish Government already has well staffed legal and recruitment departments which it could utilise? To top it all, it recently advertised for its own ‘spin doctor’!
It beggars belief that an organisation which has not caused a single brick to be laid shells out £1 million pounds a year on senior staff salaries yet still needs additional assistance.
This is Alex Salmond’s pet project.
He must step in, stop this dependency on consultants and see to it that the SFT starts to deliver for Scotland.
Filed under: General Issues, SFT Tagged: Consultants, SFT 
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