Secret deals cost public purse £300k in five years
CONTROVERSIAL gagging orders have cost Scottish taxpayers nearly £300,000 after government officials signed ‘secret’ deals.
Seven settlements have been agreed in the past five years – each including a confidentiality clause, it emerged yesterday.
As concerns continue to grow over the SNP’s ‘secret Scotland’, a freedom of information request showed that the settlements had totalled £283,936.
It is understood the gagging orders are usually used when a staff member leaves the Scottish Government following a dispute. According to sources, it is often more ‘cost effective’ to sign the controversial confidentiality settlements than fight a lengthy legal battle or go to a tribunal.
Scottish Conservative chief whip Maurice Golden said: ‘Why are civil servants being given taxpayer-funded bungs to stay silent as they quit? This shows secret Scotland is alive and well under the SNP.’
But last night a spokesman for Nicola Sturgeon hit back at Mr Golden. He said: ‘Even for the Tories, this is mind-blowing hypocrisy, coming after they have slapped gagging orders on business chiefs and charity leaders to prevent them talking about Brexit or UK Government welfare cuts.’
The revelations come after the Scottish Daily Mail launched a campaign aimed at exposing a culture of secrecy within the Government and public bodies.
Over the past few months, a number of controversial deals and decisions made by ministers have been exposed, including the revelation that a private company was given almost £500,000 of taxpayer money in a secret deal.
It later emerged the firm was identified as Silva Renewables, which had schemes branded ‘unsustainable’ and ‘high risk’ before being handed the cash.
The Government claimed the confidentiality agreements were requested by the employee and not the Government.
It is understood that such an arrangement would not prevent disclosures being made under whistleblowing legislation, and that payments include contractual entitlements such as annual leave and pension contributions.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘These non-disclosure agreements are at the request of employees, not the Government, and as the figures show, they are very rare. The Government has a presumption against such agreements and any that are made are reported to parliament annually, ensuring transparency.’
This newspaper’s campaign to end secrecy within the Governaccused ment has also exposed a growing ‘army’ of spin doctors used by the First Minister, with more than £1million spent on them last year.
Miss Sturgeon’s team of special advisers grew from ten in June 2016 to 14 in November 2017.
Special advisers have been of unfairly intervening in the release of public information and having undue influence on government policy.
It was revealed they are playing an increasing role in government, including vetting ‘politically sensitive’ freedom of information requests from journalists, politicians and researchers.
The Scottish Government is also spending more than £13,000 a day on external advisers to push its message to potential voters.
Figures show contracts totalling almost £15million were awarded to PR, marketing and advertising firms in three years.
The amount of taxpayers’ cash spent on external spin during 2015, 2016 and last year was three times more than was spent on running the Government’s own communications department.
Last month, the Mail told how spending watchdog Audit Scotland ordered the Scottish Government to be more transparent about funding of private firms following a row about ‘secret’ loans.
It followed revelations that Ferguson Marine, owned by billionaire government adviser Jim McColl, was handed £15million last September, only for the cash to be kept ‘confidential’.
Another £25million was given to Burntisland Fabrication to support the completion of two contracts and restructuring.
‘Taxpayer-funded bungs’