The chamber accused them of “evading clear responsibilities” to repay small companies that supplied the centrepiece event of last year’s Year of Homecoming
The remarks echo those of Edinburgh Central MSP Sarah Boyack, who said Gathering creditors “have been let down by Alex Salmond who has so far refused money to help them”.
The company charged with organising the Holyrood Park clan gathering in July 2009, The Gathering Ltd, went into voluntary liquidation in January 2010 after receiving £670,500 in taxpayers’ cash, including an £180,000 interest-free loan from the Scottish Government.
The company’s debts amounted to £726,000, including £344,000 owed to 103 private sector companies.
Earlier this week Yorkshire-based Portakabin was revealed as the mystery firm that had been repaid over £5600 by the council following legal threats, while smaller local companies have received no recompense.
In an unusually blunt statement, Graham Birse, chief executive of the chamber, accused the council of “double standards” for repaying Portakabin but leaving local rate-paying Scottish businesses “high and dry”.
“Cash flow and debt recovery are already difficult issues for small businesses with all the mood music of austerity and the VAT rises. The last thing companies need is for their own Government to encourage you to take part in a national project which ends in them not being paid,” Birse said.
“Scottish Ministers also have clear responsibility here as the council has inherited the problem from the Government because [former head of the Scottish civil service] Sir John Elvidge was not able to find a solution before he retired.
“We think it’s time for a rethink. It’s wrong-headed at best that city council should decide to pay a £150 million-turnover company based in Yorkshire rather than local businesses who employ people in Edinburgh.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said it was “sympathetic to the concerns of the creditors”.
He added: “This was one of the reasons we worked hard to find a solution once we first became aware of the financial difficulties the company was facing”.
