Cash-Strapped Councils?
Council employees still fighting for equal pay will be amazed to learn that council bosses can still find plenty of money to burn - on their own pet projects.
City Building is part of Glasgow City Council - Scotland's largest council - yet it has been allowed to spend taxpayers money in an alarming fashion.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven - and would give Tammany Hall politics a bad name.
Here's an edited (shortened) version of a report in today's Scotland on Sunday - by David Leask.
"Call for inquiry into company where salaries ballooned and thousands spent on hospitality."
"A CONSTRUCTION quango created by troubled former Glasgow council leader Steven Purcell more than doubled its wage bill for executives in just two years, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
City Building – previously a department of the local authority – allowed salaries for senior managers, some closely associated with the Labour Party, to balloon after it became a much-feted "arms-length" company wholly owned by the public.
The firm, whose managing director is Willie Docherty, the husband of Glasgow Labour councillor Sadie Docherty, was last night facing calls for an inquiry into whether it provides good value for council taxpayers.
Scotland on Sunday has learned that City Building executives:
1 allowed the wage bill for senior staff to more than double from at least £730,000 in 2007 to at least £1.5m in 2009, in the first two full years of nominal independence from the council;
2 approved a vehicle leasing scheme that allowed executives to rent luxury cars, including Mercedes Benz, from the business;
3 spent nearly £20,000 in a single year on 18 dinner events, 11 of which were attended by Labour councillors;
4 took a table at the cost of £2,000 at a Labour Party fundraiser, where it entertained senior Labour figures, including Scottish leader Iain Gray and his wife, despite long-standing conventions that public bodies do not make contributions to political parties.
5 agreed a salary hike from at least £110,000 to at least £140,000 for Docherty.
City Building was set up in 2006 as an "arms-length" company to take over the work of the council's former building services department and offer its services beyond the city boundaries. In 2008-9, it turned over £179m worth of business, making it one of the biggest operators of its kind in Scotland.
But opposition politicians have questioned the company's close links to Labour. Three of the four councillors on its board are Labour appointees and the former general secretary of Scottish Labour, Lesley Quinn, was made a senior manager at the firm in 2008.
They are now criticising the escalating salary bill at a time when the economy was going through a severe downturn."
City Building is part of Glasgow City Council - Scotland's largest council - yet it has been allowed to spend taxpayers money in an alarming fashion.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven - and would give Tammany Hall politics a bad name.
Here's an edited (shortened) version of a report in today's Scotland on Sunday - by David Leask.
"Call for inquiry into company where salaries ballooned and thousands spent on hospitality."
"A CONSTRUCTION quango created by troubled former Glasgow council leader Steven Purcell more than doubled its wage bill for executives in just two years, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.
City Building – previously a department of the local authority – allowed salaries for senior managers, some closely associated with the Labour Party, to balloon after it became a much-feted "arms-length" company wholly owned by the public.
The firm, whose managing director is Willie Docherty, the husband of Glasgow Labour councillor Sadie Docherty, was last night facing calls for an inquiry into whether it provides good value for council taxpayers.
Scotland on Sunday has learned that City Building executives:
1 allowed the wage bill for senior staff to more than double from at least £730,000 in 2007 to at least £1.5m in 2009, in the first two full years of nominal independence from the council;
2 approved a vehicle leasing scheme that allowed executives to rent luxury cars, including Mercedes Benz, from the business;
3 spent nearly £20,000 in a single year on 18 dinner events, 11 of which were attended by Labour councillors;
4 took a table at the cost of £2,000 at a Labour Party fundraiser, where it entertained senior Labour figures, including Scottish leader Iain Gray and his wife, despite long-standing conventions that public bodies do not make contributions to political parties.
5 agreed a salary hike from at least £110,000 to at least £140,000 for Docherty.
City Building was set up in 2006 as an "arms-length" company to take over the work of the council's former building services department and offer its services beyond the city boundaries. In 2008-9, it turned over £179m worth of business, making it one of the biggest operators of its kind in Scotland.
But opposition politicians have questioned the company's close links to Labour. Three of the four councillors on its board are Labour appointees and the former general secretary of Scottish Labour, Lesley Quinn, was made a senior manager at the firm in 2008.
They are now criticising the escalating salary bill at a time when the economy was going through a severe downturn."
