INVESTIGATION 1: But why are they in the cellar of a dilapidated former pub?
By Paul Hutcheon and Tom Gordon

A Scottish Labour MP is facing fresh questions over his expenses after claiming he billed the taxpayer for his local publican to put up shelves in his own bar. Jim Devine said the £2326 of "joinery" was for storing personal and party political material in a pub cellar he was renting.

The bizarre explanation is the Livingston MP's latest attempt to defuse the expenses row he has been embroiled in for weeks.

Devine could be deselected as a Labour candidate this week after he meets his party's special endorsements panel, dubbed the "star chamber", over £4483 of questionable expenses.

The MP claimed £2326 from the taxpayer for joinery that included the supply and fitting of 66 metres of "heavy duty" shelving. The invoice was in the name of Tony Moran, a publican in Devine's home town of Blackburn, West Lothian.

Although the expenses claim was made from Devine's constituency office budget, a trip to the MP's Livingston headquarters found no evidence of shelving.

Devine attempted to explain the mystery by telling his local newspaper the shelves were at his London home. However, Moran flatly contradicted that when he spoke to the Sunday Herald.

At an emergency Labour Party meeting in Livingston last week, the MP then said the shelves were installed in the cellar of a former Blackburn pub.

The public house, now closed, was run by Moran when the expenses claim was made in March 2006.

Devine is said to have told local party members he was reluctant to discuss the joinery claim as the shelves were used for storing party political material. House of Commons rules forbid MPs from using the publicly-funded expenses system for party purposes.

In a BBC interview last week, Devine tried to explain the joinery riddle.

Asked where the shelves were, he said: "Just down the road in a shed. They're industrial shelves. They were used to store office equipment, my personal equipment, and ... other party material."

Asked why he could not give an inspection of the shelving, he said: "Because they're in, they're in, a what-d'you-call-it, they're in a cellar that, sadly, the pub has gone bust. And that's where the material had been stored."

Asked if he had rented the pub cellar, Devine said: "Rented this space out and, what-d'you-call-it, used the shelves, the industrial bought shelves, so we could store this material."

He said the pub was called The Crown, but a visit to the former Crown Inn by the Sunday Herald reveals further discrepancies in Devine's story.

The space Devine said he "rented" to store office equipment, personal files and Labour Party material is a filthy shed, half-filled with beer kegs, pipes, and dusty bric-a-brac, with broken glass strewn on the floor.

Although there was shelving inside, it did not match the description on Moran's invoice.

Instead of 66 identical "lineal metres", there was less than half this amount in the cellar. It was also in three different types, three different sizes, and three different colours. Not one shelf was a metre long.

Two also carried faded labels saying "Mar 00" and "April 00". Devine was elected an MP in September 2005.

Franco Cortellessa, the new owner, said many of the shelves were already rusted when he bought the Crown in October 2007, less than 18 months after the date on Moran's invoice.

Cortellessa, who plans to re-open the Crown in October, said when he took over the pub the shelves had been full of bar supplies and clothing, but no Labour Party material.

"It was all Tony Moran's. There was nothing to do with a party or anything like that,'' he said.

A former employee at the pub said the cellar was completely unsuitable for storing office equipment or supplies.

"It was where all the bottles and barrels were kept. Never in its puff has it been used for that a Labour Party base. The only time I've seen Jim Devine has been when he's been going to the shops."

Approached at his home, Moran said: "No talking to any **** from the Sunday Herald."

Devine was also questioned by local Labour members last week on a £2157 claim for rewiring, which he said he initially paid to the electrician in cash.

The MP was asked at the Livingston meeting whether he could produce a bank statement confirming a withdrawal for the same amount at around the time he paid the handyman.

It is not clear what Devine's answer was to the questiom.

The MP last week claimed he had called in the police to investigate the expenses allegations.

This followed revelations disaffected Labour members were intending to call for a police investigation into the politician.

Devine declined to answer questions when approached at his Blackburn home.

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Call for new probe into cronyism in quango contracts

INVESTIGATION 2: By Paul Hutcheon

A QUANGO at the centre of a cronyism row has been called on to launch a second investigation into contracts handed to its chairman's company. MSPs want Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to probe a further £104,000 of work awarded to Edinburgh-based Rocket Science.

William Roe is chair of both HIE and the consultancy firm. Roe announced last week that he would stand down as Rocket Science chair on June 30 following an HIE audit into contracts awarded to his firm.

The Sunday Herald revealed earlier this year that the company had received around £117,000 of work from Roe's quango.

One of the reports, on skills, was largely plagiarised from an academic study produced for Exeter University. Rocket Science immediately paid back the £6864 fee.

HIE's subsequent investigation found that the consultancy had been awarded £149,256 for 21 projects since 2004.

The probe confirmed that many of the contracts had been untendered, while Roe had failed to mention seven of the deals on his register of interests.

However, the quango has also revealed that the firm received £104,677 in HIE contracts between 2001 and 2004 - when Roe was simply a director of HIE.

The inquiry did not cover these awards as they were handed out before Roe was promoted to chairman.

Mary Scanlon, the Tory MSP for Highlands and Islands, said: "The HIE investigation did not show the organisation in a good light, and I do think it was limited to Willie Roe in his role as chairman. I think we now need an investigation into contracts awarded to all companies the chairman has been involved with, back to when he was a director. This quango has been proved wanting."

The HIE report also revealed that a study carried out jointly by Rocket Science and the US-based firm, Jane's Strategic Advisory Services, contained plagiarised sections.

The audit stated: "On a number of occasions text may have been drawn from other sources without attributing the source information in the report."

The report's appendix noted Rocket Science managing director Richard Scothorne insisting that the plagiarised sections were the responsibility of his US partners.

He said a personal apology had been received from a senior director at Jane's, which has now agreed to pay back a portion of the £15,000 fee for the report.

John Wilson, the SNP MSP for Central Scotland, said: "It would have have been beneficial for HIE to have gone back to the point when Rocket Science started to receive public money. For the sake of openness and transparency, HIE may wish to look at these contracts now."

A spokesman for Highlands and Islands Enterprise said: "The first minister told the Scottish parliament on Thursday that ministers were satisfied both HIE and its chair had acted properly. HIE chief executive Sandy Cumming has already emailed Highlands and Islands MSPs and MPs with a copy of the full audit report and an offer to meet any member who might wish to discuss its contents and the actions we're now taking."

Scothorne said: "The company has a history of working with HIE that goes back to our foundation. That relationship has been based around the quality of our work, and not around any individual relationship."