Fat cat directors of SNP bank will pocket £850 a day
(And guess who’ll foot that eye-watering bill for Sturgeon’s ‘pet project’? Correct ... YOU!)
SCOTLAND’s new state-owned bank is at the centre of a fat cat salary row as it plans to pay directors up to £850 a day.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) – set to launch before the end of the year – will use taxpayers’ money to boost the economy.
Yet critics argue it is an SNP ‘pet project’ which is set to cost hard-working families £2 billion over the next ten years.
Now The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal Ministers are recruiting people to join the bank as non-executive directors, who will each be paid around £850 a day.
A job advertisement for eight positions at the bank promises successful applicants £21,250 a year for 25 days of work.
The roles require successful applicants to play a ‘key role in the governance and setting up of the Scottish National Investment Bank’.
But last night, the SNP was accused of treating taxpayers like ‘cash cows’.
John O’Connell, head of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taking home sums most of us could only dream of, these unelected quangocrats are an expensive and seemingly unnecessary burden on Scottish taxpayers.’
It is the latest fat cat salary scandal to envelop the bank, after this newspaper revealed last year that the bank’s first chairman – subsequently named as Willie Watt – would receive £1,250 a day.
In April, the bank’s first chief executive, Eilidh Mactaggart, was awarded a £235,000 salary – almost double that of the First Minister, who takes home a Holyrood MSP salary of almost £64,000, plus an additional £92,101.
Figures published by the Scottish Government show that by the time the bank is fully operational in 2027, it will spend an annual £18.9 million of taxpayers’ cash to employ 130 staff – an average of around £145,000 per year each. The huge remuneration packages have been awarded despite Ministers claiming that SNIB will be a ‘catalyst to create a fairer, more inclusive’ economy in Scotland.
The bank aims to stimulate growth by lending businesses public money. Over the next ten years it is hoping to invest £2 billion.
Scottish Tory business spokesman Dean Lockhart said: ‘There is also going to be significant duplication with the role of Scottish Enterprise in supporting business. To justify these salaries, the SNP must make it clear what the precise value add of the SNIB is going to be.’
When financial services veteran Mr Watt was awarded his role, he confirmed that despite the coronavirus pandemic, SNIB would still launch by the end of the year.
He told a newspaper: ‘SNIB isn’t intended to be a short-term lender in rescue situations, but we will be an important element in financing the recovery from what could be a deep economic downturn.’
In April, Glasgow-born Miss Mactaggart, 46, was awarded the role of chief executive at the bank having previously been managing director for MetLife Investment Management.
She said the bank would ‘seek to benefit everyone across Scotland’, adding: ‘I look forward to building the team that will help us establish the bank as a perpetual financial institution providing long-term support to the Scottish economy.’
Others have not been so effusive – one leading banker headhunted by Miss Sturgeon last year delivered a withering criticism of her Government’s attempts to boost the economy. Benny Higgins, former chief executive of Tesco Bank, said the SNIB risks being a ‘really embarrassing’ flop.
Mr Lockhart said: ‘The SNP must make it clear how the SNIB will help rebuild the economy. With a budget of £500 million, it should prioritise investing in existing viable firms struggling as a result of Covid, not make speculative investments in pet projects of the SNP.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The remuneration offered balances the requirement for non-executive directors to have skills and experience that would be highly valued in the private sector.’