Tram chiefs' team-building bill attacked

Published on Monday 9 August 2010 08:16

BOSSES at tram firm TIE have been accused of an "appalling" lack of judgement after spending thousands of pounds on a series of away days and team-building exercises.

Details of TIE's finances also showed that the council-owned company had spent up to 130,000 of taxpayers' money on staff bonuses for the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL), despite the scheme never being delivered.

Bosses also offered climbing lessons for staff, spent 1762 on a motivational speech by a mountaineer, 1000 for a quiz night, and paid for its board members to play golf.

MSPs rounded on TIE for its "outrageous" spending, but the city's transport convener, Councillor Gordon Mackenzie, said most of the expenses belonged to the "dark days" of the previous Labour administration.

Deputy council leader Steve Cardownie said it was time that officials at TIE began publishing their expenses in line with councillors after the "scandalous" use of public funds.

A breakdown of the 1.1 million in bonuses paid to TIE staff since December 2006 shows that up to 130,000 of the total was related to EARL, which was cancelled in 2007.

.It has also emerged that TIE has spent around 2.5m on consultants since 2007.

Cllr Mackenzie said: "The details show the problems were in 2006-7. I think we've come a long way since then."

Richard Jeffrey, chief executive of TIE, said: "As regards our team at Edinburgh Trams, they are the lifeblood of the organisation and investing in them means investing in the right people to manage a complex project."