THE Scottish Funding Council prides itself on helping to make Scotland the “best place in the world” to “educate, research and innovate” but that claim looks a little threadbare in the light of concerning revelations about how the body has been operating in recent years.

A leaked report into the handling of £50 million of unspent funds which the Scottish Government wanted back lays bare poor communications within the SFC as well as what political opponents label “gross mismanagement”. The investigation highlights that the council was in talks with some institutions about how some of £50m reserve could be spent despite having been told by the Scottish Government that it would have to repay the money. At least one university had to scale back a campus-relocation project as a result.

On any objective reading, SFC demonstrated startling incompetence in its internal communications, its communications with ministers, and its accountancy procedures. That said, questions must also be asked of Education Secretary John Swinney, who, last December, told MSPs all institutions had received all of their public funding. This, say the Conservative and Labour opposition, does not dovetail with the SFC’s actions. And why were ministers so keen to reclaim the £50m at a time of budget cutbacks and fees being introduced in England?

This is a sensitive time for the SFC as its board may be scrapped under a review of enterprise and skills agencies. It is worth pointing out, however, that the investigation does not blame the board, and there are still significant concerns about the impact on universities of centralising control over the SFC. Overall, this has been an unedifying episode, not least the fact that the limited public pronouncements about what was happening behind closed doors at the SFC point to a climate of secrecy and cover-up.