Cavalier With Public Money

Glasgow City Council is also getting it in the neck over its free-spending ways with public money - according to the following story which appeared in this week's Sunday Herald newspaper.

I must try and get my hands on a copy of the OSCR report - but it was never going to take a genius to work out that there was something very strange about this cavalier use of public funds.

Over recent years there has been a succession of senior council officials in Scottish local government - walking away with film start pensions and severance settlements.

Now I would object less if these generous packages were also available to the foot soldiers - the low paid workers who keep vital public services functioning day-by-day - the carers, the cleaners, the catering and the admin and clerical workers.

But no, it's always those at the top who are treated with overwhelming generosity  while the rest - those at the bottom of the pay ladder - even have to fight for equal pay.

GERA was a council-run body to all intents and purposes - yet the mystery remains as to why three Labour councillors thought it appropriate to sign-off on a settlement package worth almost £500,000.

I think we should be told.

Because that's even more that the outgoing BBC director general - George Entwistle - received recently albeit to a great public outcry.

Saez link to councillor who approved pay-off

A charity boss who pocketed a £500,000 golden goodbye had earlier "dedicated" an 18th-century country house to one of the councillors who approved his exit package.

As chief executive of the Glasgow East Regeneration Agency (GERA), Ronnie Saez named the restored Blairtummock House in the city's east end after Labour's Jim Coleman.

Opposition councillors questioned the decision as Coleman was one of the trustees who two years later agreed Saez's "extremely generous" payment.

The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) last week issued a scathing report into Saez's severance payment, which he received in 2011 as GERA was being wound up.

Three of the five trustees who signed off the deal were Labour councillors: Coleman; George Redmond; and Catherine McMaster.

In 2009, more than 100 guests were at the launch of the revitalised Blairtummock House, a council-owned building that GERA helped transform into a business facility.

According to the Blairtummock website, Saez made a presentation and "paid tribute" to the "lifelong efforts of local Councillor James Coleman", after which he "dedicated the new centre to him".

Glasgow Tory councillor David Meikle said: "It is clear there were ties between Coleman and Saez, therefore it was inappropriate for Coleman to have taken part in any discussions regarding Saez's payoff."

Graeme Hendry, the SNP group leader on the council, said: "It would surely have been sensible for Councillor Coleman to exempt himself from any decision to award an unnecessary and extremely generous financial package to Mr Saez."

Coleman said "no connection whatsoever" should be drawn between the centre dedicated to him and his role in the Saez pay-off.