Tram boss ‘who wanted £100k to pay for divorce’

A DIRECTOR of the firm in charge of building Edinburgh’s tram network asked transport officials to pay him a six-figure sum to fund his ‘expensive divorce’, an inquiry has been told.

Managers at one councilowned firm claimed they were left ‘stunned’ when a director of another, Jim McEwan, made an ‘unsolicited’ proposal to write a report in return for £100,000.

When officials turned him down, he offered to produce it for £50,000, saying, ‘I’ve got an expensive divorce to pay for’, it was claimed.

The allegations were made in evidence submitted to the Edinburgh Tram Inquiry by Neil Renilson, former chief executive of Transport Edinburgh Limited (TEL), the council firm in charge of public transport in the capital.

Mr Renilson said he believed Mr McEwan, who worked for Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE), was ‘looking for money for nothing through the back door’ during the incident, which he says happened in either late 2007 or 2008.

TIE, also council owned, was responsible for managing construction of the tram network.

In a written statement, Mr Renlison said: ‘We felt that this approach was utterly inappropriate and might amount to an attempt by Mr McEwan to solicit a corrupt payment from us.’

Mr Renilson originally alleged staff working on the project solicited or received underhand cash payouts, during spoken evidence last month .

But he was steered away from explaining his claims and told to submit them in writing to inquiry chairman Lord Hardie.

Now made public, Mr Renilson’s evidence alleges Mr McEwan approached him and TEL’s finance director, Norman Strachan, at the company’s Edinburgh offices.

His statement says: ‘Mr McEwan engaged us in conversation in Mr Strachan’s office. After a few minutes, without prompting, he said “I can write a report on your IT systems for £100,000” or very similar wording. We were both stunned at this unsolicited approach.

‘We looked at each other in disbelief and one of us said, “No thanks”, or something similar. At this point Mr McEwan said, “I’ve got an expensive divorce to pay for, how about £50,000 then?”. Again an immediate refusal was given.’

In response, Mr McEwan wrote: ‘I recall the meeting with Mr Renilson and Mr Strachan but not in great detail. As to who initiated this dialogue, I can’t remember exactly but it’s unlikely that this was a cold calling exercise by me.’

He said Mr Strachan would have been aware of a proposed study into TEL’s IT system, producing an email he sent to him on the matter in September 2007.

He added: ‘I do remember their negativity to the idea, however, and the proposal went nowhere.’

The inquiry is being held in an attempt to establish why the scheme, originally budgeted at £375million, eventually opened three years behind schedule at a cost of £1billion.

Police Scotland is probing claims of corruption made at the inquiry.