If true, this is unacceptable. The baseline argument the SNP have always relied upon – with some justification – is that independence would unlock the fiscal levers for investment in any given area of society being discussed on the day. To basically throw away £450mil is absurd, especially given that it’s earmarked for anti-poverty projects, which every SNP leader has railed against.
There has to be more detail here. They have to explain why they didn’t spend this money when every other country in the UK did so.
JFC – this is incredible. But given we’re talking about the SNP-led government, not a surprise.
Half a billion quid not used. And then there are the numerous suspensions for lack of financial governance, transparency, accountability, etc. How the SNP treats its own accounts has carried over into those of the country as a whole.
How anyone can make a positive case for these grifting, incompetent clowns is beyond me.
What’s the explanation for this? At first glance it seems completely baffling.
There’s some of your austerity
“A Scottish government-commissioned report into how the funding was being spent in the Highlands found that “the region has not benefited as much as from the 2014-2020 programmes as it potentially could have, and the impact has been lower than previous programming periods”.
“In a withering assessment, Ekos, the Glasgow firm that carried out the report, said that “insufficiently accurate and reliable data” meant that projects lost out on funding. These included money for employability, poverty and social inclusion projects and a green infrastructure fund.
In some cases this was because a failure to simplify record keeping led to it being “decided that there was not enough confidence that the data provided would meet EU scrutiny”.
That’s grim reading. The sizeable difference between the failure to use the funds needs to be looked at further.
>”Scotland has been suspended from applying for the funding on five occasions. An EU report in 2015 said a suspension had taken place because of “deficiencies in first-level management verification, audit trail” and “irregularities regarding eligibility of expenditure, rules on audit trail”
In 2019, the EU said in a separate report that “inadequate verification of public procurement procedures and related expenditure; lack of verification whether declared costs relate to actually delivered services/achievements” were behind another suspension.
There have been a total of 27 suspensions across the EU during the same period, meaning Scotland is responsible for 19 per cent of all such penalties. By contrast, England’s schemes have been praised for being “extremely successful in reaching those with multiple and complex barriers to work, and groups who were not engaging with, or who had not been successfully supported by, mainstream employment programmes”.
Wtf
Holyrood suspended from EU funding 5x for not having a proper audit trail…..
“Scottish government spokeswoman said: “These figures do not reflect the totality of spending to date from the 2014-20 European structural funds programmes. Final expenditure figures will not be known until 2025, when the programmes formally close.”
Always the last bit of the article.
As we were net contributors I’m confused about the wording of this post…surely it’s “our” money?
This is totally bonkers. Being denied funding because their record keeping and auditing is total shite so they basically couldn’t be trusted with any funds received. This is the party that wanted to take us into independence? Holy fuck
>Scotland has been suspended from applying for the funding on five occasions. There have been a total of 27 suspensions across the EU, meaning Scotland is responsible for 19 per cent of all such penalties.
Can’t wait until we get rid of the SNP. Incompetent clowns.
Wonder if there will be a moment of realisation for the big SNP fans that they are actually not that good at running our country.
This is negligent at the same time they put up taxes and stifled our economic growth.
£450m that could have been spent on scottish voters, literally pissed away by the SNP incompetence. absolutely fucking unforgivable.
The way public services and projects are literally begging for any spare money…to waste such a staggeringly high sum through nothing but shear and totally mind boggling levels of incompetence is just disgusting.
With how bad poverty is in Scotland, this (if true) is disgraceful.
Stronger for Scotland?
Now will people realise the SNP are clowns ?
I was hoping for Luxury Camper-Vans for everyone ! ! !
So the snp can’t appropriately track and record £450m of funding, but want to be in cheer of taking the country alone, they are so incompetent it’s not funny,
I’m left wondering if this explains SNPs recent actions.
They must know this bombshell was coming. So the long term for them isn’t possible really. They’re just trying to get as much now as they can from their careers because they know it’s over.
This looks like incompetence from people who just don’t care because it’s not their money.
Utter ridiculous from the SNP. Wasting money but i’m not shocked
Another nail in their coffin. Bye!
Honestly we should just be glad it’s not money they stole from the taxpayer they are handing back this time
21 comments
If true, this is unacceptable. The baseline argument the SNP have always relied upon – with some justification – is that independence would unlock the fiscal levers for investment in any given area of society being discussed on the day. To basically throw away £450mil is absurd, especially given that it’s earmarked for anti-poverty projects, which every SNP leader has railed against.
There has to be more detail here. They have to explain why they didn’t spend this money when every other country in the UK did so.
JFC – this is incredible. But given we’re talking about the SNP-led government, not a surprise.
Half a billion quid not used. And then there are the numerous suspensions for lack of financial governance, transparency, accountability, etc. How the SNP treats its own accounts has carried over into those of the country as a whole.
How anyone can make a positive case for these grifting, incompetent clowns is beyond me.
What’s the explanation for this? At first glance it seems completely baffling.
There’s some of your austerity
“A Scottish government-commissioned report into how the funding was being spent in the Highlands found that “the region has not benefited as much as from the 2014-2020 programmes as it potentially could have, and the impact has been lower than previous programming periods”.
“In a withering assessment, Ekos, the Glasgow firm that carried out the report, said that “insufficiently accurate and reliable data” meant that projects lost out on funding. These included money for employability, poverty and social inclusion projects and a green infrastructure fund.
In some cases this was because a failure to simplify record keeping led to it being “decided that there was not enough confidence that the data provided would meet EU scrutiny”.
That’s grim reading. The sizeable difference between the failure to use the funds needs to be looked at further.
>”Scotland has been suspended from applying for the funding on five occasions. An EU report in 2015 said a suspension had taken place because of “deficiencies in first-level management verification, audit trail” and “irregularities regarding eligibility of expenditure, rules on audit trail”
In 2019, the EU said in a separate report that “inadequate verification of public procurement procedures and related expenditure; lack of verification whether declared costs relate to actually delivered services/achievements” were behind another suspension.
There have been a total of 27 suspensions across the EU during the same period, meaning Scotland is responsible for 19 per cent of all such penalties. By contrast, England’s schemes have been praised for being “extremely successful in reaching those with multiple and complex barriers to work, and groups who were not engaging with, or who had not been successfully supported by, mainstream employment programmes”.
Wtf
Holyrood suspended from EU funding 5x for not having a proper audit trail…..
“Scottish government spokeswoman said: “These figures do not reflect the totality of spending to date from the 2014-20 European structural funds programmes. Final expenditure figures will not be known until 2025, when the programmes formally close.”
Always the last bit of the article.
As we were net contributors I’m confused about the wording of this post…surely it’s “our” money?
This is totally bonkers. Being denied funding because their record keeping and auditing is total shite so they basically couldn’t be trusted with any funds received. This is the party that wanted to take us into independence? Holy fuck
>Scotland has been suspended from applying for the funding on five occasions. There have been a total of 27 suspensions across the EU, meaning Scotland is responsible for 19 per cent of all such penalties.
Can’t wait until we get rid of the SNP. Incompetent clowns.
Wonder if there will be a moment of realisation for the big SNP fans that they are actually not that good at running our country.
This is negligent at the same time they put up taxes and stifled our economic growth.
£450m that could have been spent on scottish voters, literally pissed away by the SNP incompetence. absolutely fucking unforgivable.
The way public services and projects are literally begging for any spare money…to waste such a staggeringly high sum through nothing but shear and totally mind boggling levels of incompetence is just disgusting.
With how bad poverty is in Scotland, this (if true) is disgraceful.
Stronger for Scotland?
Now will people realise the SNP are clowns ?
I was hoping for Luxury Camper-Vans for everyone ! ! !
So the snp can’t appropriately track and record £450m of funding, but want to be in cheer of taking the country alone, they are so incompetent it’s not funny,
I’m left wondering if this explains SNPs recent actions.
They must know this bombshell was coming. So the long term for them isn’t possible really. They’re just trying to get as much now as they can from their careers because they know it’s over.
This looks like incompetence from people who just don’t care because it’s not their money.
Utter ridiculous from the SNP. Wasting money but i’m not shocked
Another nail in their coffin. Bye!
Honestly we should just be glad it’s not money they stole from the taxpayer they are handing back this time