Salmonds latest contortions dont add up His cynical response highlights the First Minister’s reluctance to account for his use of public funds while staying in a five-star hotel in the United States When Alex Salmond cant, or wont, answer detailed questions about his apparently extravagant use of substantial amounts of taxpayers money on his foreign jaunts, sorry investment trips, what does he do? Why, he changes the amounts of course. Faced with questions from this newspaper and from Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, about how he managed to spend £54,000 in a one-week trip to the USA in 2012, he first of all said it wasnt him – or at least that another 17 civil servants had spent it. And then that narrative changed. At first his spin doctors said that the sum involved wasnt £54,000 at all; it was only £51,000. They then claimed that a previous parliamentary answer from Fiona Hyslop, the cabinet minister with responsibility for culture and external affairs, had been wrong. It was this answer that had formed the basis for the total that the First Minister was being asked about. What is not disputed is that Mr Salmond chose not to stay with the rest of his delegation but at a five-star hotel – much favoured by pop and film stars – some distance away. And, remember, Mr Salmond did not pay for a pair of tartan trews, bought for £250 in China, until this newspaper asked about the purchase. In a new indicator of the level of cynicism that infects the Scottish Government from top to bottom, Mr Salmonds helpers finally answered our FoI request yesterday evening. This came after 6.30pm - months after it had been requested and then only after intense parliamentary prodding from Labour and further pressure from this newspaper. It gave only the bare bones of spending in the USA but did not itemise how much of it was attributable to Mr Salmond, nor how much was spent at the most expensive hotel. In conversations with Mr Salmonds aides earlier in the day, my colleague, Simon Johnson, was told that Ms Hyslops figure had been subjected to a slight revision downwards, which was not unusual, they said, when final costs of foreign trips are being worked out. And then this newspaper got an official Scottish Government statement reading: The Scottish Government costs outlined in the parliamentary question [by Ms Hyslop] have now been revised down due to final billing processes. Such minor revisions are common when accounting for events such as this as the final costs of the trip become confirmed. I find this statement not just uncommon but extraordinary. It cannot be common to revise figures downwards after that length of time. Final bills for accommodation and meals do not take 14 months to arrive. The figure that Ms Hyslop provided came in a parliamentary answer in November 2012. Yet it is only now, when press and parliament are demanding an explanation, that Alex Salmond says that £3,000 should be lopped off his governments bill. Would any reasonable person find this sort of explanation credible, especially when set alongside the inordinate delay in answering a Freedom of Information request by this newspaper? Paul Martin, Scottish Labours business manager, was suspicious that someone had repaid the mystery £3,000. He asked: Has someone been found out and repaid cash? When this newspaper asked the Scottish Government for an official explanation for the way this whole issue had been handled it was not, as the First Minister said, ridiculous frippery or an attack on a government delegation seeking inward investment. It was, instead, a simple demand for the proper accounting of taxpayers money. However, it was a simple demand that Alex Salmond was always reluctant to answer.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:11:34 +0000
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