Glasgow Under Fire
At a time when the public finances are very tightly stretched - Glasgow City Council has come under fire for making additional - and unjustified - payments to many of its councillors.
Glasgow's practice of paying councillors additional money for sitting on arm's length bodies - such as Cordia - has been roundly criticised by an independent advisory body (SLARC).
Here's a report by Gerry Braiden from today's Herald - which explains what's been going on in recent years.
But in essence Glasgow City Council is spending more than £250,000 on top-up payments to councillors - when this much needed money should be going directly towards council services
"Council told to axe extra payments for sitting on arm’s-length bodies"
"THE practice of Glasgow councillors awarding themselves additional payments of more than £250,000-a-year for sitting on arm’s-length organisations (Aleos) must be scrapped, Government advisors have demanded.
They have urged ministers to accelerate axing the controversial system, which sees mostly members of the Labour-run administration awarded top-up salaries of up to £20,000 a year, claiming this was unjustifiable, exceeded limits on payments by almost half and undermined the current national system of payments.
The Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee has asked the Government to “act sooner” on its recommendation to scrap Aleo salaries in Glasgow, the only council in Scotland to pay councillors for sitting on such bodies.
The report states: “Despite meeting with Glasgow City Council on two occasions and corresponding with them we have been given no justifiable reason why councillors should receive an enhanced salary solely for serving as directors on the board of an Aleo and we cannot support continuation of this practice.”
Ian Livingstone, chairman of the Remuneration Committee, said: “The current practice of paying additional sums to councillors for serving on Aleos, often for doing a similar job as they did on council committees, completely undermines the integrity of the national remuneration scheme.”
In the wake of his resignation over cocaine and alcohol abuse, The Herald revealed how former Glasgow leader Steven Purcell used Aleo payments to support an elaborate system of political patronage, with many Labour backbenchers commanding five-figure sums on top of their basic salaries.
Even some administration insiders admitted the payments remain the glue which holds the Labour group together, while the opposition is predicting “mutiny” if and when Aleo wages go.
The call comes as two Labour councillors expect to hear they will inherit the £17,000 of outside body payments left vacant by the sacking of colleague Willie O’Rourke over his comments on child rape.
SNP group leader James Dornan, who sits on the board of the SECC, said council leader Gordon Matheson should halt the payments immediately and redirect the money into frontline services, adding the system had “more to do with Labour Party nepotism than delivering quality services”.
Glasgow's practice of paying councillors additional money for sitting on arm's length bodies - such as Cordia - has been roundly criticised by an independent advisory body (SLARC).
Here's a report by Gerry Braiden from today's Herald - which explains what's been going on in recent years.
But in essence Glasgow City Council is spending more than £250,000 on top-up payments to councillors - when this much needed money should be going directly towards council services
"Council told to axe extra payments for sitting on arm’s-length bodies"
"THE practice of Glasgow councillors awarding themselves additional payments of more than £250,000-a-year for sitting on arm’s-length organisations (Aleos) must be scrapped, Government advisors have demanded.
They have urged ministers to accelerate axing the controversial system, which sees mostly members of the Labour-run administration awarded top-up salaries of up to £20,000 a year, claiming this was unjustifiable, exceeded limits on payments by almost half and undermined the current national system of payments.
The Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee has asked the Government to “act sooner” on its recommendation to scrap Aleo salaries in Glasgow, the only council in Scotland to pay councillors for sitting on such bodies.
The report states: “Despite meeting with Glasgow City Council on two occasions and corresponding with them we have been given no justifiable reason why councillors should receive an enhanced salary solely for serving as directors on the board of an Aleo and we cannot support continuation of this practice.”
Ian Livingstone, chairman of the Remuneration Committee, said: “The current practice of paying additional sums to councillors for serving on Aleos, often for doing a similar job as they did on council committees, completely undermines the integrity of the national remuneration scheme.”
In the wake of his resignation over cocaine and alcohol abuse, The Herald revealed how former Glasgow leader Steven Purcell used Aleo payments to support an elaborate system of political patronage, with many Labour backbenchers commanding five-figure sums on top of their basic salaries.
Even some administration insiders admitted the payments remain the glue which holds the Labour group together, while the opposition is predicting “mutiny” if and when Aleo wages go.
The call comes as two Labour councillors expect to hear they will inherit the £17,000 of outside body payments left vacant by the sacking of colleague Willie O’Rourke over his comments on child rape.
SNP group leader James Dornan, who sits on the board of the SECC, said council leader Gordon Matheson should halt the payments immediately and redirect the money into frontline services, adding the system had “more to do with Labour Party nepotism than delivering quality services”.
