COMPANIES in which Scottish Enterprise board members have shares received more than £2.4 million of funding from the publicly backed agency in its most recent financial year.
The figures - which include equity investment, loans and grants - are revealed in accounts for the 12 months to March 31 which were recently published by the Scottish Government-funded economic development agency.
The vast bulk of the sum, around £2.2m, comes from companies in which Scottish Enterprise chairman Crawford Gillies has shares.
That figure is a near 43 per cent increase from the £1.54m businesses in which Mr Gillies is a shareholder received from Scottish Enterprise in the 2012/13 financial year.
Mr Gillies, 58, an experienced and widely respected corporate director who is on the board at Barclays and Standard Life, already lists a number of firms he has a stake in on his register of interests but there is no indication of how much backing they have received from Scottish Enterprise.
The latest sum to be made public means companies in which Mr Crawford owns shares have been awarded almost £7.5m of funding since he became chairman of the body in February 2009.
The accounts show dental technology business Calcivis was the biggest single recipient in the most recent financial year with £388,688 of equity investment as well as £13,902 of grant funding. Infrared sensor developer Pyreos was the next biggest with a £300,000 equity investment and £15,863 worth of grants.
The accounts also state that Ayr-based medical device developer Giltech, where Scottish Enterprise board member Gillian Watson is a shareholder, received a £200,000 loan and £18,614 of grant funding.
Ms Watson, a senior managing director at boutique investment bank ES Noble & Co, lists her stake in Giltech on her register of interests at Scottish Enterprise and notes it has received financial backing from the agency.
She was also previously managing director at Giltech.
Liberal Democrat peer Jeremy Purvis said: "Ultimately we need to consider if the needs of Scottish business are best served by the current funding arrangements and whether regional development banks could have a greater impact. But until this happens we need to ensure that the existing system is fully transparent and accountable.
"It's wholly justifiable to scrutinise the work of Scottish Enterprise but we need wholesale reform to improve support for business that would remove these perceived conflicts of interest."
Mr Gillies was criticised by the TUC and the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland earlier in the year when The Herald first highlighted how companies in which he has stakes have received substantial funding from Scottish Enterprise.
Many funding deals which the Scottish Investment Bank (SiB), which is part of Scottish Enterprise, enters into use a co-investment model. SiB will typically invest into Scottish companies with high growth potential alongside private equity groups or business angels.
A Scottish Enterprise spokeswoman said "We have very robust systems in place to avoid any potential conflict of interest and to ensure absolute transparency in all transactions.
"As in previous years, a full list of all transactions between Scottish Enterprise and businesses in which Scottish Enterprise board members have declared an interest are laid out in full in our annual accounts.
"All are conducted at arm's length and in accordance with normal project and programme rules and consequently, board members have never had any involvement in decisions to invest in companies in which they have a stake."
The Scottish Enterprise accounts showed Mr Gillies saw his fee for being chairman remain flat at £38,721.
Seven members of the executive leadership team received six-figure salaries with chief executive Lena Wilson the highest paid at £203,000, up from £200,000. Ms Wilson also received pension benefits with a value of £36,000.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article