Senior SNP minister Mairi McAllan ‘kept in dark’ over water body’s £80k expenses scandal

A senior Scottish Government cabinet member was allegedly “kept in the dark” over the water body she has oversight over which ran up substantial expenses without informing the SNP Executive.

The Scottish Express is reporting that Net Zero secretary Mairi McAllan complained about being “disappointed” and “shocked” to hear about the scandal which the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland became embroiled in.

Wics became the topic of a damning Audit Scotland report released in December, where the auditors slammed the organisation for “poor governance” over public funds. The watchdog is charged with ensuring Scottish Water is not breaking any laws or charging Scots too much money.

This was not cleared first with the SNP Executive, and neither was the £2,600 being claimed to provide every staff member with a £100 gift card for Christmas.

The scandal cost CEO Alan Sutherland his job, but he managed to pocket a cool £80,000 golden goodbye.

Now, the Scottish Daily Express can reveal that Ms McAllan was only informed about this damning Audit Scotland report, and the expenses, days before the official publication came out on December 20. This is despite senior officials retrospectively accepting the expenses on November 3.

He said: “It’s futile for Màiri McAllan to complain about being ‘disappointed’ and ‘shocked’ when senior SNP government officials signed off these expenses the previous month. Ministers are supposed to oversee public spending, not just wait for Audit Scotland to identify abuses.

Addressing MSPs at the start of the meeting at Holyrood, Donald MacRae, chair of the board at Wics, said there had been a “change of culture and focus on value for money” since the Audit Scotland report. Jon Rathjen, deputy director for water policy retrospectively put through the expenses and was accused of being “complicit” in the taxpayer cash being wasted as he did not challenge the spending.

Mr Rathjen accepted he “made an error of judgment” in relying on an assurance from the Wics chief executive officer. He said Wics had approached the Scottish Government to approve the spending retrospectively and refusing it would not have achieved anything.