SNP puts your cash on the line, but won’t tell you who it’s for!
THE SNP has been accused of ‘compulsive secrecy’ after ministers refused to name more than 200 Scots firms given £135million of taxpayerbacked loans.
It claims ‘confidentiality agreements’ prevent it from naming them.
Nicola Sturgeon unveiled a plan to provide ‘guarantees’ for up to £500million of bank loans to businesses in her 2016 programme for government.
Yesterday, the Scottish Government confirmed the scheme has invested only a fraction of that figure, while refusing to say which firms have benefited.
The Scottish Growth Scheme helps ministers ensure firms get funding to allow them to invest and expand. But the public purse will foot the bill if they are unable to repay the money.
Scottish Tory economy spokesman Dean Lockhart said: ‘The SNP launched the Scottish Growth Scheme to massive fanfare. It is astonishing to now suggest this major SNP policy cannot be properly scrutinised.
‘There is even more reason to scrutinise this, given the recent SNP fiascos regarding Ferguson Marine, Prestwick Airport and BiFab, all of which wasted huge amounts of public money.
‘The SNP has a lot of explaining to do. Why has only a quarter of the money promised by the First Minister been made available to Scottish firms and why were these confidentiality agreements needed?
‘The SNP’s compulsive secrecy has to stop. The people of Scotland have a right to know how their money is being spent.’
In response to a freedom of information request, the Scottish Government said the Scottish Growth Scheme invested £49.5million in 2017-18, £65.3million in 2018-19 and £20.2million from April to July this year.
It said it could not provide a breakdown of funding to the 201 businesses involved because this information is not provided by the fund managers who deliver the services.
When asked for a full list of companies to benefit, a Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We do not hold detailed information relating to each individual investment, so we are unable to distinguish which investments are open to be published and which investments may be covered by a confidentiality agreement.
‘The commercially sensitive nature of investment needs to be respected.’
When she announced the Scottish Growth Scheme in 2016, Miss Sturgeon said it was ‘an exceptional response to an exceptional economic challenge’. She told MSPs: ‘This is a half-billion-pound vote of confidence in Scottish business, Scottish workers and the Scottish economy.
‘We are determined to build an economy where everyone has a fair chance to contribute to growth and everyone can share in the benefits of growth.’
Ministers were accused of lack of transparency after it emerged they gave a ‘secret’ loan to a multi-millionaire adviser to Miss Sturgeon.
Ferguson Marine, which was owned by businessman Jim McColl at the time, was given £30million by the Scottish Government in June 2018.
But it later emerged it also received a £15million loan in September 2017, only for the cash to be kept ‘confidential’.
The Scottish Government admitted it did not publicise the £15million loan, citing ‘reasons of commercial confidentiality’.
‘The people have a right to know’