A COUNCIL leader has been reported to the standards watchdog after he helped approve up to £25,000 of funding for a subsidiary company of his employer.
Labour's Mark Macmillan, who leads the administration in Renfrewshire, was on a board that allocated the funds so Kibble Works could clean up "eyesore" sites in Paisley.
However, Mr Macmillan did not declare his employment with Kibble's parent organisation and the SNP opposition has made a formal complaint.
Since last year, Labour has had a majority on Renfrewshire Council, before which the SNP and Liberal Democrats ruled in coalition.
On March 20, the council's economy and jobs policy board met to discuss various issues, including the area's social economy.
A report presented to councillors noted that an "opportunity existed" to use social enterprise funding to establish a pilot "town centre hit squad".
The scheme would deliver training to young people by getting them to "tackle eyesore sites and buildings" that had a "detrimental" impact on Paisley town centre.
Kibble Works, a subsidiary of Kibble Education and Care Centre (KECS), was earmarked to deliver the project. A minute of the board meeting shows the councillors "agreed" to commit the £25,000 to the clean up pilot.
However, Mr Macmillan, who was one of the councillors at the meeting, works for KECS as a public policy adviser.
He declares the job on his register of interest, but the minute of the board meeting contains no declaration when the funding decision was being discussed.
However, he did declare the link at a second meeting.
Kenny MacLaren, an SNP councillor on the local authority, has now complained to the Public Standards Commissioner for Scotland.
In his complaint, he wrote: "I believe the key principle of integrity has been broken."
He later added: "There is definitely something suspicious about this, and serious concerns that the council is handing over a contract worth £25,000 without producing the most basic information, including how much the young people will be paid and what training qualifications they will receive."
Kibble Works is described as the parent organisation's "enterprise and employment hub".
The firms offers a "pre-apprenticeship model" for young people who have social, emotional, behavioural and educational difficulties.
Mr Macmillan said: "This employment project has been on the agenda at two council and policy board meetings recently. I declared a non-financial interest in advance of the second meeting.
"I accept that I should have declared a similar interest on both occasions. Indeed, I raised the matter with council officials immediately after the first meeting and took the first public opportunity to make that declaration at the subsequent meeting of the council."
A council spokesman said the contract for the pilot project had yet to be finalised, but said: "Kibble Works was chosen to operate the pilot project due its experience in delivering similar training programmes. The pilot will be funded through Renfrewshire Council's recently launched £500,000 programme to develop the role of Renfrewshire's social economy."
Mr Macmillan has just apologised after a fake Twitter account was set up in his name and was used to post tweets comparing the police to Nazi Germany.
The council leader said he was sorry to "anyone offended or misled" by the fake account.
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