Labour hits out over £4m quango that has met only twice

Published on Tuesday 31 March 2009 23:10

CONCERNS will be raised today over the £4 million spent on the SNP's Scottish Futures Trust, which has apparently resulted in just two meetings.

The SFT was set up to drive forward Scotland's infrastructure programme, but opponents claim it has proven to be an "expensive, ineffective quango".

Labour will go on the attack today in a parliamentary debate, after receiving new information from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre that shows the SFT employs just five directors, under the chairmanship of the former merchant banker Sir Angus Grossart, who to date have met twice.

The only other staff working for the SFT are eight Scottish Government civil servants who are not employed by the body.

The information also reveals that the quango, which has been in the making for almost two years, has no business or corporate plan, organisation chart or publication scheme.

So far, the quango has been involved only in providing advice for one schools project and two health hub projects.

Labour's finance spokesman, Andy Kerr, has claimed the delay to infrastructure projects caused by the wait for the SFT has cost 20,000 jobs.

He added: "The SNP appear to have wasted millions so that Angus Grossart and his fellow directors can whistle while jobs burn."

However, recent figures showed a slight increase in construction jobs in Scotland, and the Scottish Government has pointed out it took the Executive led by Labour more than two years to develop a new system to build infrastructure projects.