‘Scottish independence spin doctors’ to cost taxpayers £3,000 a day

THE Scottish Government is set to spend millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash on hiring a firm to promote the policies of the SNP administration and other public bodies in the run-up to the independence referendum.

Government officials have taken out an advert asking firms to bid for a contact worth up to £1 million a year – or almost £3,000 a day – for the final four years of the SNP’s term in office.

Nationalist ministers were heavily criticised by opposition parties over the move, which comes after it emerged that taxpayers are paying nearly £12m a year to cover the cost of the Scottish Government’s communications budget.

The SNP already has a dozen special advisers and a figure from April 2012 showed that the Scottish Government admitted it employed 38 full-time communications officers at a cost to taxpayers of £2.1m annually.

A further £683,000 is spent on the special advisers for ministers.

However, the SNP administration now wants to pay a firm up to £4m to send out news releases, monitor newspaper reports and broadcasts for government departments, government agencies and public bodies.

The advert gives firms until the end of June to bid for the contract, which the government insists will cover work “already provided by outside contractors”.

But senior Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser issued a stark warning that using funds from the public purse to promote the SNP’s pro-independence policies would be “unforgivable”.

Mr Fraser, the convener of Holyrood’s economy committee, said: “The Scottish Government already directly employs a small army of spin doctors and communications professionals.

“Now it’s looking to spend large sums of public money on its media operation at a time when it tells us that money is tight.

“It would be unforgivable if it were to turn out that any of these funds were being spent in connection with the independence referendum campaign.”

However, the government insisted that the multi-million-pound deal was being tendered because the existing contract with firms such as Newslink, which runs its press release distribution service, and media monitoring service Press Data Bureau was due for renewal.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The contract covers auxiliary services that are already provided by outside contractors.

“This contract renewal will enable up to 250 public-sector organisations to collaboratively purchase a range of integrated services which would otherwise have to be negotiated and purchased individually.

“This delivers major savings to the public purse and is part of our commitment to opening up public-sector contracts to businesses of all sizes.”

The latest row comes after figures obtained by Tory MSP Gavin Brown showed that the Nationalist administration’s strategic communications budget for 2011-12 had increased by £7.5m to £11.8m.