A REVIEW of the running of the office of the Lord Provost of one of Scotland's largest councils has been launched after staff expenses doubled in a year.
Edinburgh City Council Lord Provost Donald Wilson has been criticised after his office's staff bill spiralled and he used public funds to pay for alterations to his kilt after attending twice as many more functions than his predecessors.
The council confirmed yesterday the Lord Provost's office was under "operational review" as new papers also revealed that he had two chauffeurs among his rising staff of 12.
Now Edinburgh Tory Group leader Cameron Rose is to quiz officials over the Lord Provost's office expenses in public for the first time today.
He will ask the council at a meeting for answers on the 103% rise in the forecast overspend on the Lord Provost's office staff costs to £433,000 to March compared with £223,000 the previous year.
New figures also show that of nearly 900 engagements, Mr Wilson has been to 101 dinners and 81 refreshments receptions.
In 2008 Lord Provost George Grubb, a Lib Dem councillor, attended 429 events in total.
Mr Cameron said he believed detailed answers needed to be provided on the running of the office.
He will ask for comparisons of the number of events previous incumbents have carried out and why it has nearly doubled since 2008.
He will also demand "an explanation of why the budgeted 2.89 (full or part-time) staff in the Lord Provost's Office has been augmented by four additional staff at a cost of £145,000".
A senior source at the council said: "In order to address the budget pressure in the Lord Provost's office, an organisational review has been implemented."
Mr Wilson had the alterations to his kilt done last year after struggling to fit into the official Highland dress.
The £250 bill was paid for out of the public purse, although Mr Wilson has since repaid the cash and insists he always intended to do so.
A spokesman for the council, which is controlled by a Labour and SNP coalition, said: "The Finance Convener will respond in detail to Mr Rose's questions during the council meeting."
The council said earlier the Lord Provost, reported to be in line for a pay rise from £36,528 to £37,262 "fulfils an important promotional role".
The Lord Provost is said to employ a staff of about 12, including full and part-time workers and secondments from other departments as he "develops his role further". His predecessor managed the department with an equivalent eight staff.
The Lord Provost declined to comment.
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