FINANCIAL watchdogs have found no evidence of fraud or corruption in Celtic's purchase of its Lennoxtown training facility.
But the probe by Audit Scotland has raised a series of weaknesses in the financial monitoring arrangements by the various public bodies involved in the sale of the land to Celtic and who later commissioned community programmes from the club.
The report states: "This creates an environment in which accusations of fraud or corruption are more easily made and are more difficult to rebut."
It added that the local NHS board, East Dunbartonshire Council and the special purpose company set up to redevelop the Lennoxtown area "should have had more robust processes in place to demonstrate that the public funds provided were used for the charitable purposes intended, and that use of the resources in this way represented Best Value".
It found that while Celtic did indeed provide a range of community services as part of the deal to acquire the former NHS psychiatric hospital and that these were part of a service level agreement (SLA) it warned there was "insufficient evidence to say whether these were at an appropriate level or quality, or if they represented value for money".
Celtic had approached NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in late November 2004 expressing an interest in purchasing the old Lennox Castle site to construct a new training ground and sports academy.
The club paid £493,000 for the plot, which Audit Scotland said exceeded the independent professional valuation of £480,000 obtained by NHSGGC.
An arrangement was also made that Celtic would provide a range of community services to the Lennoxtown Initiative (LI) through the training centre, including access to facilities for local groups, coaching, and other activities over a number of years at a total cost of £535,071.
Audit Scotland said correspondents have raised a number of concerns about the relationship between the LI and Celtic, and that the club wanted to ensure it recouped its land purchase money over the first few years after the deal. It said: "It is proposed by correspondents that this could, at the very least, appear fraudulent or corrupt. "Correspondents also expressed doubt about the services provided in return for the payments made to Celtic, and asked about quality, quantity and monitoring arrangements."
In its findings Audit Scotland also claimed that while LI minutes suggested participants, parents, school teachers and other members of the community enjoyed the sessions provided by Celtic there was no official evaluation or record "of the public value../which has accrued to the Lennoxtown area in return for public money spent".
It added: "Given these were key objectives for the LI, and indeed for the public bodies involved, we would have expected those concerned to have had a considerable interest in monitoring and evaluating the extent to which the SLA with Celtic was contributing to these outcomes."
Audit Scotland has since forwarded the findings to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and East Dunbartonshire Council to "take action to ensure that appropriate lessons are learned and the necessary improvements in practice are implemented for the future".
A previous ruling by the EU found Celtic did not receive state aid by Glasgow City Council in any land deals.
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