CABINET ministers were assured one of Alex Salmond’s pet projects would be delivered at “minimal” cost despite it later becoming a byword for taxpayer-funded excess.
Finance Secretary John Swinney made the forecast in a paper to the SNP cabinet of 19 June 2007 about the First Minister’s new Council of Economic Advisers (CEA).
Files released today by the National Records of Scotland show Mr Salmond took a keen interest in the group, raising it in the very first meeting of his cabinet on May 22.
“The First Minister said that it should be possible to reach an early decision on the structure of the Council of Economic Advisers,” the minutes record.
A week later, Mr Salmond told his cabinet he had found a chair for the group - apparently without consulting them - the banker Sir George Mathewson, who had backed the SNP just before the Holyrood election.
The cabinet minutes stated: “The First Minister said that good progress was being made towards establishing the Council of Economic Advisers.
“Sir George Mathewson, the former Chairman of the Royal bank of Scotland, had agreed to chair the Council and discussions on remit and membership were ongoing with Sir George.
“He anticipated a Council of 9 eminent members with strong backgrounds in the business world or in economics. He expected to be in a position to bring in more details to the Cabinet in a few weeks time, with a public announcement following shortly thereafter.”
The fuller paper Mr Swinney brought to cabinet in June said the CEA would work with the FM and be purely advisory, having “no formal or administrative role” and “the costs of the CEA would be expected to be minimal and should be absorbed within existing budgets”.
The following week, Mr Salmond also reassured the cabinet that all those he had invited to join the Council had accepted on a “no fee basis”.
However the CEA quickly earned a reputation for burning through public funds in other ways, flying in members from around the globe, and meeting and eating in luxury venues.
In August 2009, freedom of information requests revealed more than £100,000 had been spent on its first six meetings, including hiring a five-star castle on the edge of Edinburgh, despite a host of government buildings being available to use in the capital free of charge.
Almost £60,000 in was spent on flights for the 11-strong group, £9500 on chauffeur-driven cars and coaches, £9000 on hotels and £13,000 on food and drink.
The bill for hiring Dundas Castle, an “exclusive use venue” set in 1000 acres near South Queensferry, was £3732 for a day in 2009, with £3653 more spent there on dinner.
After opposition parties denounced the runaway “largesse” and “spending money for the sake of it”, the CEA’s venues became far more modest and its costs significantly cheaper.
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