Today’s news that Marco Biago is not longer with the SNP after a short engagement involving a few months, or put another way, until after the election, raises again the issue of the missing “ring fenced” money. Perhaps Marco is getting out before they come knocking at his door. Anyway this is the article I wrote at the time. It is still relevant and the question remains unanswered.
LET US SEE THE LOOT?
So three members of the Finance and Audit Committee, appointed by the National Treasurer to sit on a committee whose remit is to ensure the financial health and probity of the Party finances have decided to resign.
They really had no choice, these were professional people, with backgrounds in finance and business, with professional personal reputations to protect and who recognise that after repeatedly trying to obtain the access to the books that would allow them to fulfill their role they had made zero progress. Every request being ignored or rejected by the Chief Executive Peter Murrell.
If you have ever worked in senior management or attended any course in corporate management you will be well aware of the need not to ignore such behaviour from any Chief Executive and that you have a personal, indeed legal responsibility, to ensure that position cannot remain secret. So not only should we thank those who resigned for their efforts we should also thank them for the manner they resigned, reporting their action to the NEC, the body ultimately responsible for the governance of the Party, stating the reasons for resigning at the committee so nobody could claim ignorance of their reasons, or ignorance of how their Chief Executive is behaving.
I note from the Wings site that amongst the concerns they had were “massive bank charges”. This, if true, would be extremely worrying. Bank interest rates are at historic low levels at the moment, so for large charges being levied very substantial borrowing must be taking place. How members can equate such a position with recent public announcements seems difficult to say the least. People may remember the upbeat announcements of £1.5 million being available for the election and having located the 600k “ring fenced” money it was going to be used for a new department headed by new employee Marco Biagi. Readers may also recall my skepticism of those announcements. Can I say with certainty what the problem is? No I can’t, nor can anyone else, that is why those responsible for the financial probity must win access to the books to carry out their duties. How ridiculous and pathetic to have to fight to be able to do so?
Wings also mentioned a potential financial calamity from the previous month’s ludicrous decision to “fix” the number 1 slots on the list across the entire country in direct contradiction to the legal advice from an eminent QC that warned such a move could open up the Party to legal and damages costs amounting to potentially many hundreds of thousands of pounds. What is it about this Party and ignoring legal advice?
At the time I was astonished that plan was not removed from the agenda by the National Secretary in light of the legal advice but it certainly is a consideration that both the National Treasurer and his Finance and Audit Committee would have a duty to consider given that the potential amounts involved could bankrupt the Party. The news that the Party has already received lawyers letters on the topic should be a big concern and the Party might be wise to revoke that decision before nominations close at the end of the month.
Now when Allison Graham, the NEC REP for Mid Scotland and Fife, and, one of the three who resigned, announced their decision to resign to the NEC it set off an angry confrontation with other, mainly appointed, NEC MEMBERS. They were incensed, why had this been raised at the NEC? Their main complaint was this now risked members of the Party finding out about it. None of them were angry at Peter Murrell , all their anger was directed at Allison for reporting it directly to the body that was ultimately responsible and who had the constitutional responsibility for fixing the problem. The solution being to instruct Peter Murrell on penalty of instant dismissal to hand over the books that they can be formally inspected and audited. Needless to report this was not even discussed.
The minutes have now been published for the meeting minus any news of the resignations, or their reasons for resigning, or any plan to overcome the impasse.
I have never heard of any significant organisation operating with revenues the size of the Scottish National Party where it is acceptable or normal for the Chief Executive to refuse access to the books to those officers or appointees of the National Treasurer and where such action stops the proper financial and audit procedures necessary to ensure everything is being run honestly and above board. I know nobody is allowed to know his salary but everything else as well? Come on!
The NEC should not ignore their responsibilities in these matters, they are ultimately responsible for the proper governance of the Party and could find themselves legally responsible if their negligence leads to members funds being lost or improperly used. Simply omitting the issue from the minutes will not be sufficient to disguise those responsibilities. This article itself records the names of who formally advised the NEC of these matters.
The three members of the committee were Allison Graham, the NEC Member mentioned above, Frank Ross, a chartered accountant and the current Lord Provost of Edinburgh and Cynthia Guthrie, who is a company director with a Livingston based company. They did the right thing. I am sure they found it difficult but nothing good comes from allowing reckless financial irregularity like this to continue unchallenged.
The SNP is in a hell of a mess, no matter where you look there are huge problems. The Party, as well as the politics is in a dreadful state. Unlike the politics where there are always arguments about who is responsible, when it comes to the Party it is crystal clear. The total responsibility lies with the NEC and the Chief Executive. I feel sorry for a lot of the newer NEC members, most of the problems were the fault of the previous Woke dominated NEC who seemed happy to let the Chief Executive and his staff run the entire Party unchecked.
It is that irresponsibility and negligence that has led to today’s problems. Somebody better wrest the books from Peter, or is it Peter and Nicola soon, just in case they are not around much longer.
Late last night I was contacted by a branch whose treasurer spent three months trying to contact the National Treasurer. Why the delay? It took HQ THREE MONTHS to create an email link to him following his election in November. Sound like a slick operation to you? No me neither!
I am, as always
Yours for Scotland
Beat the Censors
Some bloggers are now being blocked from some sites by the Thought Police division of the SNP who want to control what you read every day. On the top right of this page there are buttons marked Home or Blog. If you go there you can easily organise a free subscription to this site and frustrate their entire efforts. Thousands already have. You will be very welcome.
YOURS FOR SCOTLAND 
He’s probably retired. On 150 grand a month he can afford to.
Isn’t this being investigated by the fraud squad?
LikeLiked by 3 people
In the work which I used to do, there was a Professional Code of Conduct. I assume the three who resigned would have similar guidance from their own Professional Bodies. Would it be worth looking into this elsewhere? Just asking
LikeLike
Be interesting to get the report on Biagio’s costs. I presume it will be close to the £600K, matching the ring fenced account. Does this imply that Biagio’s was only there to see if he could get a nomination for the elections?
It is a disgrace that our party are not responsible to us, the members. The recent replacement of Women’s convenor and Equality convenor, super pronto, yet other vacancies are still vacant. Certain entryists seem determined to thwart the wishes of the members.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I’m glad I’m no longer a member of the SNP. I don’t really care about the individuals involved. What I am concerned about is the detrimental effect this could have on the independence movement as a whole. My biggest worry is that the British establishment are fully aware of any irregularities and are waiting for the best time to inflicted the most damage.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I think Peter Murrell’s salary is also a secret, some folk thought that the indyfunds were used in a SNP MPs court defence of whom I won’t name. I also think the ploy was to set up an indy body and say that the ringfenced funds were used for that, but I recall Wings pointing out that in reality only one person was working on it and even then nothing concrete happened.
Then the story was that somehow the ringfenced funds were woven through the SNP accounts but when the Electoral Commission published their accounts (and the EC took their bloody time about doing so) the money wasn’t there.
I personally think the ringfenced funds are held in an underground vault, deep under the SNP’s HQ guarded 24/7 by deaf mute Eunuchs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah yes, that must be it, they’ve taken it all out in cash and are having it guarded round the clock in its vault – perhaps, even, it has a very high electrified security fence round it too…
I now have dark images of the vault being situated in hades, the styx running by,,,
LikeLike
My father would read the Sunday papers from cover to cover, papers like the New of the World, which was the big scandal sheet at the time, (sometimes referred to as the screws of the world). I remember him reading out something about a scandal in government and his reaction to it was “When the po’ breaks there will be a big stink”. That sounds about right to me.
LikeLike
Has Marco Biagi or the SNP issued any statement?
LikeLike
To answer my own question, here is his post on Twitter:
“Back in January I was brought on by SNP HQ as a consultant on independence groundwork. This is just a public information that I’m now choosing to move on from that post. It was a pleasure to be asked to work with the party again and I look forward to helping again in future.”
LikeLike
Why are SNP branches not seeking a collective action through the courts to establish the whereabouts of this fund?
At some point they must understand that they the members have lost control of the organisation to which they have pledged financial support in furtherance of Scottish Independence.
It is perhaps of greater concern that a considerable portion of this fund was donated by people outwith the SNP responding to calls, from the SNP, to build a ringfenced fund all the better for the SNP under the stewardship of Murrell and company to prosecute the case for Independence.
The clarion call must go out WHERE HAS THAT MONEY GONE AND TO WHOM?
LikeLiked by 2 people
seem to remember wings or someone suggesting that the mystery funds could have been used to repay loan that was due to be repaid
if you criticise any aspect of the SNP on social media you get hammered. Do these people not realise that the SNP are not going for independence the levy on the MPs puts £0.5m in SNP funds.
It is all going to come to a point where the authorities get involved.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I left the SNP a couple of months before the election after years of membership and many more of voting for them. It was a culmination of things but the final straw was NS’ hysterical video begging the trans activists to come back, while ignoring the abuse of Joanna Cherry by an SNP member
Long before this however, I had dragged myself to Branch meetings which basically would have tried the patience of a Saint. As PEO I would research and prepare topics for discussion and debate which we never had time for, or would be carried forward to the next meeting….. but we never had time for them then either
The most memorable part of these meetings was fundraising. We talked endlessly about bottle stalls, raffles, silent auctions, a lottery, bric a brac, a ceilidh – you name it, we discussed it. Every meeting.
We were charged £600 for newsletters which were delivered to the branch so late they weren’t relevant any more and our MSP was in a different role so her update piece was out of date.
Every week, how can we raise money for our next election, our next candidate, our next campaign? Time spent discussing independence – not so much
When I think of how much th
LikeLiked by 1 person
the same group of people spent keeping that Branch going, then think how much Clan Murrell have made out of the electorate since 1999, plus the mystery of the missing £600k, plus the money spent trying to frame Alex Salmond I am raging
Yet mention this on social media and you get attacked on all sides – oh no, you can’t criticise She Who Must Be Revered
I am so close to just giving up on Indy altogether but the Murrell Collective aren’t going to beat me…. not yet anyway
LikeLiked by 1 person