Government faces overtime criticism

The Scottish Government has come under fire for spending more than £6 million on staff overtime when building its troubled farm payments IT system.

In a letter to the parliament’s rural economy and connectivity committee, Cabinet secretary Fergus Ewing revealed the Government had spent £6.37m on staff overtime since it started building and implementing the new IT system four years ago.

He said the Government’s five-year Futures programme, which is designed to implement Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) reform, was likely to cost £178m when it is completed.

The programme costs, which include the building and implementation of the new IT system, included £6.37m in staff overtime costs, of which nearly £4m had been racked up in the past 18 months.

North-east Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles yesterday hit out at the overtime costs and said farmers could no longer trust the Government.

“Farmers were forced to wait for months to receive crucial farm payments while overtime payments spiralled,” he said.

“These figures are staggering and lay bare the cost of this botched IT project.

“The legacy of this shambles is businesses out of pocket and a breakdown of trust between farmers and the Scottish Government at a time when there is real uncertainty in the sector over Brexit.

“This is the time that farmers need to have confidence that ministers will work in their best interests.

“How can the sector trust the SNP to deliver for them now?”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Cap payments are an absolute priority for the Scottish Government, and our staff have been working relentlessly to pay as many farmers and crofters as quickly as possible – with more than £317 million injected into the rural economy so far.

“But Scotland’s farmers and crofters need the long-term certainty that continued Cap funding offers – not the uncertainty posed by being taken out of the EU, which is why we are determined to protect Scotland’s place in Europe.”