SFT pays out £120,000 to private-sector consultants

Published on Wednesday 30 September 2009 22:35

A NEW spending row has broken out over the cost of the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) after it emerged it has paid £120,000 to consultants since June.

The SFT was set up by the SNP Scottish Government to drive the country's infrastructure programme as a funding body and has been given a co-ordination role in a new school building programme. However, it is yet to build or fund any projects.

A written answer to Labour MSP Bill Butler stated six consultants received a total 118,976, including Hays Recruitment, which received nearly 50,000 for its role to "assist in the recruitment of seven senior Scottish Futures Trust staff".

Mr Butler said: "It's astonishing that the SFT, which has failed to lay a single brick, far less build a single school, paid out over 1,000 a day to private-sector consultants over the last four months."

But an SFT spokesman said the costs were normal for an organisation setting itself up.