Audit questions city management of trams project

Published on Wednesday 26 January 2011 14:14

A LONG-awaited audit of Edinburgh's tram debacle is set to raise fresh questions over the city council's handling of the project, it emerged today.

&#149 Job well done

An interim report by Audit Scotland, which is due to be published next Thursday, is believed to highlight the lack of scrutiny shown by councillors towards the crisis-hit 545 million scheme.

Newly-appointed council chief executive Sue Bruce is now expected to launch a review of the way the whole project has been managed as soon as last-ditch peace talks with contractor Bilfinger Berger are concluded in March.

Ms Bruce will personally represent the council during the discussions.

Sources close to the project insisted the Audit Scotland report would not be "condemnatory", but admitted there were concerns about councillors' ability to oversee developments.

One project source said: "I don't see the report as necessarily being critical but it certainly poses the question about whether the current governance arrangements through the tram project board have given elected members full sight of all aspects of the way the tram project has been met, because there is just four of them (councillors] who see the updates on a regular basis.

"It is a well-balanced report and it poses questions rather than being condemnatory."

The source added that Audit Scotland now appeared to be back-tracking from a report in 2007 which Labour politicians have long argued gave the project a "clean bill of health".

He added: "The Audit Scotland report of 2007 into arrangements said they were satisfied, but in this report they say the previous report was not comprehensive."

Last year the council was criticised for failing to hold more regular meetings of its tram sub-committee, the body set up to scrutinise the project.

Councillor Phil Wheeler, the previous transport convener, also admitted the council had trusted tram firm TIE "a bit too much", adding that the council's arms-length tram company had been given a "freer hand than hindsight has proved appropriate".

SNP Lothians MSP Shirley-Anne Somerville said the project had "gone wrong before the first road was dug up".

She said: "Undoubtedly there will be important lessons to learn from the trams fiasco at all levels and that's why I welcomed news of Audit Scotland's involvement. But the problem with their review is that it is very limited in scope, and so I fear the real culprits might be let off the hook."

A spokesman for the city council said: "As the report by Audit Scotland has not been published yet, it would be inappropriate to speculate on its content at this time."

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