£3BILLION SCOTTISH CHARITY SCANDAL

Taxpayers foot the staggering bill for cash given away by Scottish Government Millions wasted on ‘sock puppet’ organisations that promote SNP policy Giveaways are bonanza for fat cat salaries and huge pensions

MORE than £3billion of taxpayers’ cash is being pumped into some of Scotland’s biggest charities each year. A major scottish Daily Mail investigation has uncovered a vast network of charitable organisations effectively promoting government policy while being bankrolled at public expense.

Many of these supposedly not-for-profit enterprises can barely raise a penny in donations. yet they are able to pile up enormous surpluses worth millions of pounds, using the excess cash to accumulate lucra-tive property portfolios – and even invest in hedge fund schemes.

The Mail’s findings blow apart the

traditional image of charities as reliant on the goodwill of donors and staffed by volunteers.

Most of Scotland’s charity funds are now raised behind closed boardroom doors by chief executives on sky-high salaries and gold-plated pensions. Our investigation has identified: The ‘third sector’ fat cats taking home six-figure salaries and bumper pensions.

Charity cash invested in the tobacco and arms industries – and even indirectly linked with financing vivisection and genocide.

The way taxpayers’ money is spent creating ‘sock puppet’ charities to prop up SNP policies such as the Named Person scheme.

How public funds are frittered away on ludicrous schemes such as gay-only basketball and school lessons on African light bulbs.

Some charities have become flourishing business empires – exempt from paying a penny in tax themselves – and are kept alive by the public purse.

There are 24,070 registered charities in Scotland, including many educational establishments – universities, colleges and schools – and housing associations.

Many of the nation’s best-loved institutions, such as the National Library of Scotland and the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, also enjoy the status.

There are now around 700 charities that boast annual turnovers of at least £1million.

Many have taken root and flourished – yet only manage to stay alive because they are funded year after year by the public sector.

In all, there are 1,057 charities with income of at least £250,000 a year which are backed with taxpayers’ money, according to a detailed investigation of their accounts.

Documents from last year show that the select band received £3.15billion of government money, around half their total revenue.

South of the Border, the Westminster Government is set to ban publicly funded charities from political lobbying – a move rejected by the SNP.

But our probe also raises serious questions over the policing of the country’s charity sector amid evidence of poor financial management and executive pay spiralling out of control.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is the watchdog that oversees the charity sector but it has been criticised for failing to crack down on fat cat salaries.

Last night, Scottish Conservative communities spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘People work hard to support charities, whether it’s digging deep into their own pocket or dedicating their own time to arrange fundraising events.

‘That’s why it’s imperative charitable organisations spend that money responsibly.

‘It’s very difficult for charities to justify paying staff six-figure sums when you consider where this money is supposed to be going.

‘The public expect these set-ups to be whiter than white and that’s why we need to have a debate about matching the kind of regulation we are seeing south of the Border.

‘If confidence in charities is damaged, every good cause will suffer.’

Eben Wilson, director of campaign group TaxpayerScotland, warned that ‘where a charity has objectives aligned with the policy ideas of the government of the day, it often begins to lobby for those ideas to support its own bank balance’.

He added: ‘Some Scottish charities linked to the state have climbed onto the gravy train.

‘More and more, they have become supplicants of the public purse, seeking to spend our money on what they consider to be good causes. Unfortunately, in the process they have changed.’

OSCR chief executive David Robb said: ‘Our position has always been that charity trustees must be able to show that any remuneration is appropriate and in the best interests of the charity.

‘They must also be able to show that they have taken any decisions on remuneration appropriately, including taking into account any potential reputational impact.

‘The charity sector is enormously diverse, both in terms of scale and operation.

‘Running large charities is clearly a considerable responsibility and inevitably this is reflected in the salaries of some staff.’

Mr Robb added: ‘Decisions on remuneration are a matter for charity trustees subject to the above considerations.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said it had ‘passed legislation to increase transparency in lobbying’.

He added: ‘We believe charities play an important role in highlighting issues and providing a voice on public policy.

‘We do not therefore agree with the proposed UK Government restrictions on their activity and will not be doing anything similar in Scotland.

‘We expect all charities to deliver public benefit and to act responsibly to ensure they recruit and remunerate senior staff properly and proportionately.’

‘Supplicants of the public purse’