Come clean over Covid £15billion, SNP is told
SNP ministers must come clean about where £15billion of pandemic funding was spent, the boss of Scotland’s spending watchdog has said.
Auditor General Stephen Boyle accused the Scottish Government of not being ‘clear enough’ about why they had splurged so much money or what the benefits were.
He warned that, without transparency from the SNP, the public may never know where the money went.
Mr Boyle also insisted an urgent investigation be launched into the huge amount of public money lost to fraud, believed to be as much as £32million.
He said it was now imperative that the Government claw back the cash which had been stolen during the two years of the pandemic.
Mr Boyle’s comments came after a scathing Audit Scotland report revealed that £2billion of funding had been funnelled into the Government’s reserves. Finance Secretary Kate
Forbes said yesterday that all of this money had now also been spent.
Opponents said the auditor general had laid bare ‘the secrecy and mismanagement at the heart of this SNP Government’.
Scottish Conservative Covid recovery spokesman Murdo Fraser said: ‘While the SNP Government have boasted about the Covid support they provided, Audit Scotland estimate that, up to the end of last year, they had spent well over £2billion less than they were given by the UK Government.
‘The watchdog’s alarming conclusion is that we simply don’t know how, where, or even whether, these funds were spent. ‘That’s simply unacceptable.’ In his report, Mr Boyle repeatedly warned the Government about the lack of ‘clear enough links between spending announcements, budgets and financial reports’ during the pandemic. He said the public and politicians demanded answers about the use of Covid money.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: ‘What is important is a need for transparency in this spending, and we note at the end of last year around £2billion of Covid-related money was in the reserves of the SG and other public bodies.
‘We’re calling for a clear, transparent report that sets out how the money was spent and – importantly – what the impact of that spending has been.’
Audit Scotland revealed the Scottish Government had £15.5billion to allocate in the pandemic, with the vast bulk – £14.4billion over two years – coming from UK Government Barnett consequentials.
It also found the Scottish Government does not have complete records of the actual spending.
Labour Covid recovery spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: ‘This report lays bare the secrecy and mismanagement at the heart of this SNP Government.’
At First Minister’s Questions, Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘No funding currently in the Scottish reserve relates at all to Covid-19 business support funding.’
‘Secrecy and mismanagement’