It is ‘not possible’ to say how much bungled Alex Salmond review cost
● Civil service chief in clash with MSPS over government’s spending on inquiry
Scotland’ s most senior civil servant, Leslie Evans, has been accused of “evasion and secrecy” after telling MSPS the total cost of the government’s bungled inquiry into allegations of sexual misconduct against former First Minister Alex Salmond is impossible to estimate.
In a letter to the Holy rood committee on Scottish Government handling of harassment complaints, Ms Evans said it was“not possible to say how much was paid to lawyers or other civil servants employed by the Scottish Government” when the government was forced to defend its investigation into Mr Salmond in court.
Her answer was strongly criticised yesterday by Scottish Labour MSP Jackie Bail lie, who said her letter was “another exercise in evasion” in the latest of a series of clash es between the government and the committee over the failure to release information.
Ms Baillie said: “The committee and the general public deserve to know how much taxpayers’ money was fr itte red away on the judicial review. We know that the cost is in the hundreds of thousands but the true extent has not yet been revealed.
“The cost for external legal advice was £118,000 and that was on top of the £512,000 paid to Mr S almond and his lawyers. It is not rocket science for the Permanent Secretary to work out the cost to the Scottish Government of the attendance of a number of civil servants at all the meetings about the judicial review.
“So far this investigation has revealed just how ingrained evasion and secrecy is in the Scottish Government. If the committee is to uncover the truth about this sorry affair then the evasion and secrecy must end.”
The government had to pay out to Mr Salmon dafter a Court of Session decision that its internal inquiry into harassment allegations had been unlawful and “tainted by bias”.
Ms Evan was asked about the total cost to the government of the court action at her last appearance in front of the committee and had agreed to answer in writing. In her letter, she said: “It is not possible to provide this figure. Dealing with this case was part of the normal range of duties undertaken by a number of different civil servants, including lawyers in the Scottish Government Legal Directorate. Civil servants receive a salary rather than being separately remunerated for dealing with particular matters.
“In addition, they do not record the proportion of their time that they spend working on particular matters as a matter of course.
“It is therefore not possible to say how much was paid to lawyers or other civil servants employed by the Scottish Government for dealing with this matter.”
The Scottish Government has been criticised by the committee for withholding legal advice it received prior and during the judicial review. A government spokes person said it was “taking steps to enable it to provide all the relevant information requested by the committee, so far as is possible”.