£2.6m from councils' good causes funds goes on red tape

Published on 09/04/2009 21:34

SCOTLAND'S councils were criticised yesterday for taking £2.6 million from a fund for good causes to cover administration costs.

The Scottish Conservatives called on the Scottish Government to allocate the Fairer Scotland Fund centrally, to stop so much being wasted on administration.

They also highlighted the massive differences in the costs of red tape from council to council.

Perth and Kinross spends just 697 administering its part of the fund, but Glasgow spends a massive 650,000 on administering the fund to good causes in its area.

The money should go to charities and voluntary organisations, but the Tories claim that too much is taken up on administration which could be going to organisations which desperately need it.

Margaret Mitchell, for the Tories, said: "It is unclear why some local authorities are spending often in excess of 100,000 every year in the administration of charitable funds which could easily be administered centrally from one location for the whole of Scotland.

"The economies of scale would be obvious and it would mean that millions of pounds would be available for voluntary bodies that are being starved of funding and are certainly not benefiting from this fund being administered through local authorities."

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said the administration costs were a matter for local councils.

She said: "Amounts spent on administration are a matter for the local partners, however ministers have insisted from the outset that reporting linked to the fund be made as streamlined as possible, allowing resources to go to the front line where they are needed."