Quango that ran up £35k hotel bill on the taxpayer

MORE than £35,000 of taxpayers’ cash was spent by a Scottish Government quango to hire hotel meeting rooms for events such as ‘mindfulness’ sessions.

Disclosure Scotland used the facilities at Glasgow’s four-star Village Hotel on 71 occasions.

The venue hosted events such as a ‘world cafe’, a ‘refocus workshop’ and a ‘mindfulness’ session. There were also several away days costing between £700 and £1,975 each.

The functions, between March 2016 and this May, cost £35,096.

The quango, which vets applications from people hoping to work with children and vulnerable adults, held 44 events linked to the muchcriticised delivery of its £21million replacement IT system.

The team delivering the system spent £18,583 – more than half the total amount spent on the sessions at the hotel.

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be shocked to learn officials have been forking out for facilities at posh hotels, all paid for on the taxpayer’s coin.

‘It’s beggars belief that these bureaucrats were so quick to fall back on four-star luxury, just because their usual meeting room was supposedly out of action.

‘Surely cheaper alternatives could have been found, even if that meant sitting in a local library.’

The NHS describes mindfulness as ‘a way of living in the moment and being aware of everything that makes up this experience’. Disclosure Scotland said its session aimed to ‘look at ways to improve health and wellbeing in the workplace’.

Scottish Conservative chief whip Maurice Golden said: ‘No one is suggesting organisations like Disclosure Scotland should cut out this kind of spending altogether.

‘But there must be cheaper ways for taxpayer-funded organisations to hold meetings and away days.

‘Government quangos have a duty to be responsible with public money. People will be surprised at this level of avoidable expense.’

A Disclosure Scotland spokesman said: ‘Meeting rooms in Disclosure Scotland were converted into office space for a period of time to deal with a temporary staffing pressure.

‘During this time it was important that the business continued to hold meetings required to progress our work. When no options were available elsewhere in the Scottish Government estate in Glasgow, rooms in the hotel were used.

‘Disclosure Scotland always seeks value for money, following Scottish Government guidelines. We review quotes from different venues, with consideration of travel time for staff to make best use of resources.’

Last year, the Scottish Tories criticised Disclosure Scotland over delays and ‘failures’ in the roll-out of its new IT system after it emerged it would not be in place by the original August 2018 completion date.

The quango was forced to renew its BT contract on two days’ notice at an additional cost of £4.4million, only two months after it had been terminated.

The Scottish Government spent more than five years and at least £21million on the new IT system, which was deemed vital to prevent unsuitable adults from working in schools and care homes.

‘Falling back on four-star luxury’