FINANCE Secretary Derek Mackay has been accused of being “totally out of his depth” after a dispute with councils over his draft budget.
Mr Mackay was criticised after claims the SNP government botched the handling of a ring-fenced £86m grant to councils for criminal justice social work in 2018-19.
Council chiefs believe the government miscalculated their financial settlement by deducting the money twice from a key calculation, upsetting council budget figures.
The local authority umbrella group Cosla lobbied government officials to issue revised figures, which they have now, reluctantly, agreed to do.
Councils must finalise their budgets and set council tax rates by March 10 at the latest.
Jenny Laing, co-leader of Aberdeen City Council, said the blunder showed the SNP “cannot be trusted to handle our citizens’ hard-earned taxes and run this country”.
Ms Laing, who was elected for Labour last year but suspended by her party after going into coalition with the Tories, added: “This level of incompetence beggars belief, but such mismanagement has become a hallmark of Mr Mackay’s tenure as finance minister.”
Tory MSP Alexander Stewart said: “The level of incompetence here has now become a hallmark of Derek Mackay’s tenure as finance secretary.
“Local authorities are already facing serious cuts to their budgets and this will clearly make it even more difficult for local authorities to provide essential services.”
A Cosla spokesperson said: “There is an issue in relation to the individual calculations for councils.
"We understand that revised figures will be issued by the Scottish Government to councils either today or tomorrow. We do not know the implications for individual councils. We have pressed the point to the Scottish Government about the urgency to get revised figures out to councils as soon as possible and without any further delay.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Not a single penny will be removed from the provisional local government finance settlement, which was issued on 14 December 2017. This marked the start of the statutory consultation period with local government on the terms of the settlement and the indicative allocations to individual authorities. As a result of this consultation period we have been requested to make some adjustments to the provisional allocations by Cosla, on behalf of local government, which we will respond to this week.”
Mr Mackay was also accused of showing “contempt” for councils after refusing to take up an invitation from the labour leader of North Lanarkshire to discussing a £22m cut to its budget.
Councillor Jim Logue said he had wanted Mr Mackay to learn first-hand what the cut would mean for local services and residents.
Mr Logue said: “It is an abdication of his responsibilities as Cabinet Secretary and his claim that local government has always been treated fairly by the Scottish Government shows how out of touch this SNP government are with the people of North Lanarkshire. Cuts to councils are cuts to communities and our communities are telling us that enough is enough.”
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