GLASGOW City Council must learn the lessons of the George Square debacle after embarking on the project half-cocked, according to a new report by the public spending watchdog.

Audit Scotland said Glasgow "should complete a review of lessons learned" from the aborted design competition.

The watchdog devotes two pages of its 2012-13 annual audit of the council to George Square, after examining the episode in detail because of public and media interest.

Although it did not record any wrongdoing, Audit Scotland concluded the council embarked on the project without proper governance structures in place, and "incurred costs for itself and third parties in developing proposals for the radical design that ultimately did not come to fruition".

Glasgow Tory councillor David Meikle, who asked Audit Scotland to examine the episode earlier this year, said: "This report is another confirmation the whole George Square design contest was bungled from start to finish.

"Given Gordon Matheson's fingerprints were all over this debacle, he and his team need to learn some hard lessons from it."

A council spokesman said: "We will take the points made by Audit Scotland on board."