Civil servant who ran Holyrood project takes early retirement

BARBARA Doig, the civil servant who was publicly criticised for her role in the controversial Holyrood building project, is to retire early from the Scottish Executive, The Scotsman has learned.

The 58-year-old former project sponsor of the parliament building, who will collect a final-salary pension, was criticised by Lord Fraser in his report into the Holyrood fiasco for taking "flawed" decisions. She was also senior member of a team lambasted by the Tory peer for failing to inform ministers of rising costs and refusing to heed professional advice.

Mrs Doig will retire from the Scottish Executive research department this week - breaking the last major link between the Executive and the controversial building project.

Her departure means that almost all those in charge of the Holyrood fiasco have now either retired, moved on to other jobs or died.

Mrs Doig rose to public prominence during Lord Fraser's inquiry into the Holyrood fiasco which ran for eight months through 2003 and 2004.

She had been a government researcher but was promoted to be the project sponsor of the Holyrood building in March 1998 after having taken charge of the fit-out contract for the Executive building at Victoria Quay in 1993.

She was at the centre of the controversial decision to reinstate Bovis Lend Lease to the shortlist of companies to manage the project. Bovis went on to win the contract, a decision which has since provoked a lawsuit against the parliamentary authorities.

Mrs Doig also clashed repeatedly with John Campbell QC, counsel for Lord Fraser, during the inquiry and later lodged an official complaint with the Faculty of Advocates after Mr Campbell had referred to her in a speech as a "librarian" who was not qualified to run the project.

A spokesman for the Scottish Executive confirmed yesterday that Mrs Doig, the chief researcher in the social research department, was leaving the Executive after 36 years as a civil servant.

The spokesman refused to go into any details, but, at 58, with over three decades of service behind her, Mrs Doig is expected to retire with a generous one-off payment and a healthy annual pension based on her final salary.

"Mrs Doig is a member of the civil service pension scheme, under which she can leave the civil service early. She is leaving the Executive," he said.

The long-running saga of the Holyrood building, which resulted in a 300 million overspend and three and a half years of delays, involved a host of senior figures in government, architecture and building in Scotland - many of whom say they have suffered because of the strain of the project.

John Gibbons, the Scottish Executive's chief architect, retired from the profession earlier this year and Brian Stewart, the lead Scottish architect, was forced out of RMJM, his architectural firm, after a clash with directors,

Mr Stewart spent much of the end of 2003 at Lord Fraser's inquiry into the project. He was once on the verge of tears when being questioned from the witness box, saying the project had been a "nightmare". Mick Duncan, another of the RMJM architects, retired.

Donald Dewar, the former first minister who commissioned the project, died in 2000. Enric Miralles, the architect who conceived the controversial design, also died in 2000.

Alan Mack, of the construction managers, Bovis Lend Lease, took leave before the project was finished, because of ill- health.

Sir Muir Russell, who was the permanent secretary at the Scottish Executive and the man ultimately responsible for the project, retired from the civil service in 2003. The 56-year-old former mandarin will receive a one-off payment of about 215,000 when he turns 60 and can expect an annual pension from the taxpayer of 65,000 waiting for him at 65. He is now principal of Glasgow University, earning 178,000.