POLICE Scotland are to meet with Glasgow City Council officials over the ongoing investigation into years of suspected financial irregularities with the local authority.
Official have already held several discussions with the force about the probe, but they will give a thorough and up-to-date briefing early next week.
Glasgow contacted the force after it uncovered evidence that has led to the suspension of three officials, with several more also under the microscope.
It is understood, that on the advice of the force, the council will conclude its own probe into senior staff within its Development and Regeneration Services Department (DRS) before police decide on the next move.
It emerged last week that two DRS officials, Kaiser Khan and Evelyn Beck, have been suspended "as a precautionary measure". The probe emerged during routine auditing but quickly expanded into other areas.
This week, it emerged that Marjorie Miller, a senior manager within the department under scrutiny, has also been suspended, again as a precaution.
Part of the inquiry is examining allegations that DRS officers were hiring themselves as freelance business consultants to firms they had assisted with grants, loans and facilities.
Senior sources at the council have also told The Herald they expect more officers to be suspended as the probe widens.
One said: "When the extent of the investigation became apparent we spoke with Police Scotland. What makes sense is for us to complete our own audit and see at that stage if we need to bring the cops back in to look themselves."
A council spokesman said: "We have spoken twice already with Police Scotland on the matter.
"A meeting is planned for next week when we will give a full briefing on the investigation to date."
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