Police quango gave £160k to boss facing domestic abuse trial
Whistleblower reveals £400k watchdog payouts
‘No reaction... at the most senior level’ ‘It was a golden handshake’
A POLICE quango executive was given a ‘golden handshake’ of more than £160,000 despite facing prosecution for domestic abuse, a tribunal heard yesterday.
Amy McDonald, former financial accountability officer at the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), revealed details of a series of extraordinary deals worth hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money.
The experienced chartered accountant said she had uncovered massive payoffs for senior executives – and claimed she was ignored after blowing the whistle on ‘significant wrong-doing’.
Mrs McDonald, 44, also told the Glasgow tribunal an executive who had quit, with another job lined up, withdrew their resignation after an SPA official told them a redundancy deal was possible – and a payoff of nearly £80,000 was arranged.
The deal allegedly came to light when the executive was seen distributing ‘champagne and goody bags’ to colleagues.
Mrs McDonald told the hearing, before employment judge Susan Walker, that she was sidelined within the SPA and frozen out of key meetings after raising concerns about finances.
She felt ‘disowned’ and ‘isolated’ after her fears of possible wrongdoing were not taken seriously – and now works at the SPA in a role in the forensics division. She said she came into the public sector because she ‘did not want to work for people who were extremely rich and make them richer’.
Explaining her frustration, she said: ‘It was my expectation that something would be done. I did not expect there to be no reaction from people at the most senior level – that was something I felt awful about.’
She said she found out about an executive who left the SPA in 2016 with a payout of £165,000, despite having been arrested and charged with domestic abuse weeks before. Mrs McDonald said: ‘This individual did not come back to work and a redundancy payment was made to that person, signed off by [then SPA chief executive] John Foley. He [Mr Foley] was aware of the circumstances of why that senior executive was not at work when he signed the authorisation. He was advised by the director of governance, “Are you sure you want to sign off that payment?”’
But Mr Foley signed it off, something which Mrs McDonald said ‘still bothers me now’. She said: ‘It was a golden handshake in circumstances of gross misconduct… it was worthy of investigation by Audit Scotland.’
In June 2016, she found another senior executive had been given a redundancy package of £108,000, when in fact Mrs McDonald said they were only entitled to £38,000. In another case, an executive had worked for the SPA for less than two years and therefore did not qualify for redundancy, Mrs McDonald said – but they were given a £47,000 payment.
Regarding the official who withdrew their resignation, she said she emailed Mr Foley and the then SPA chairman Andrew Flanagan, who did not reply. Mrs McDonald said she alerted Justice Secretary Michael Matheson about her concerns.
She said she had been told in a job appraisal in April 2016 with Mr Foley that her role was being made redundant and later read in a press release that she was leaving the SPA. In fact she stayed on in a different role.
She raised her concerns in a formal grievance procedure and had a meeting in November 2016 with then SPA deputy chairman Nicola Marchant but there was ‘little discussion’. A complaint about the way her redundancy was handled was upheld, but her concerns about financial wrong-doing were not. An anonymity order prevents the payoff recipients being named.
Audit Scotland has previously criticised the SPA’s ‘poor governance and poor use of public money’.
Mr Foley stood down in November and Mr Flanagan quit last year after he was accused of bullying.
Mrs McDonald’s claim is being brought under whistleblowing legislation. In legal terms, she alleges the SPA subjected her to detriment because she raised concern about misuse of public funds. The tribunal continues.