Lib Dems reveal Scottish enterprise £1 million bonus spend
December 10, 2010 5:45 PM
Originally published by Scottish Liberal Democrats
Originally published by Scottish Liberal Democrats
Using Freedom of Information requests, Liberal Democrats have revealed that the SNP spent over £1 million on bonuses to Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise staff in 2010/11.
The FOIs also make it clear that this bonus deal was signed off by SNP Ministers in 2009.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Finance spokesperson Jeremy Purvis said:
"Liberal Democrat research shows that the SNP paid out over a million pounds in bonuses to Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. SNP Ministers forked out an average bonus of over £10,000 last year to the already highly paid Scottish Enterprise management team as part of a £1 million bonus bonanza in 2010/11.
"What makes me especially angry is that at the time I was meeting Jim Mather, the Enterprise Minister, to try and save one of the biggest textile businesses in the borders and he said that there was no money to help it. Over a hundred people lost their jobs. They will be interested to know that SNP Ministers were at the time signing off a million pounds of bonuses.
"The payout has gone up by over £70,000 since last year, when we revealed that the two quangos had spent £965,000 on bonuses, regardless of the fact that Scotland was officially in recession and unemployment was rocketing.
"Our Freedom of Information request makes it absolutely clear that SNP Ministers sign off bonus arrangements. SNP Ministers authorised almost a million pounds of taxpayers' money in performance bonuses alone to its enterprise quango, when an official report put Scotland at the bottom of the OECD for business start ups, people continue to lose their jobs and many small businesses still can't get credit. That's hardly a performance worth rewarding, particularly when money is so tight.
"Liberal Democrats want to scrap all bonuses in the public sector. Scottish Enterprise has signalled that it will continue to pay out investment bonuses next year. John Swinney has only reduced the bonus entitlements of the current Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise from 12.5% to 10% of her enormous £200,000 salary. Last year when he wrote begging letters to quango bosses asking them to consider handing back some of their bonuses, the former Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise said no.
"This simply isn't good enough. The Finance Secretary has to get a grip of bonuses.
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