Mark Macaskill - Sunday Times Scotland - 21st February 2010
Steven
Purcell was looking forward to a lazy Sunday, catching up with
the papers. As the Glasgow council leader’s coffee percolator reached
boiling point, so did his temper when, browsing through his Sunday
Times, he learnt that some of his colleagues were making the news ...
and not in a good way.Several officials in the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), a government organisation based in Glasgow, had taken the travel remit of their jobs a little too literally, running up a £117,573 expenses bill in three years, including £49,195 spent on overseas trips.
In recent years, the organisation had been significantly downsized. As the leviathan Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive, it was responsible for every form of public transport in one of Europe’s biggest administrative regions. Under its new guise, it was stripped of many of its functions, left with responsibility only for the modest Glasgow Underground and an assortment of other bits and pieces, including school transport and bus shelters. Its new slimmed-down remit and budget did not appear to affect a taste for the high life among many of its senior officials.
Documents obtained under freedom of information legislation revealed that, in 2008, Ron Culley, the former £129,000-a-year chief executive, flew to New York with two colleagues at a cost of almost £8,000. The quango refused to reveal whether all three flew first class. His trip included a six-night stay at the exclusive Algonquin Hotel, a favoured haunt of celebrities including Anthony Hopkins and Jeremy Irons, at a cost of £1,700. In 2007, Culley and several colleagues flew to India to inspect Delhi’s underground system on a trip that cost £10,000. While there, he and Gordon Maclennan, the organisation’s assistant chief executive, and Alistair Watson, its chairman, found time to visit tourist attractions such as the Taj Mahal.
In 2006, Culley travelled to China for 10 days with two colleagues to visit Hong Kong and inspect Shanghai’s 268mph maglev train system. Their flights and hotel stays cost £11,000. In April 2008, the quango’s former director of human resources billed the taxpayer £447 for a stay at the Parco dei Principi hotel in Rome. A month earlier, Maclennan had stayed at the Imperial hotel in Prague at a cost of £518.
Claims made by Culley included 65p for a telephone call from a hotel, £1 for “parking”, £1.50 for “refreshment” at an airport, £2.14 for a “snack” and £2.99 for setting up an account on iTunes. Maclennan posted expenses of £2.99 for a “city map of Prague” and £2 for coffees.
If the benefit of such expenses was lost on anyone travelling on the “Clockwork Orange” — the nickname for Glasgow’s rickety metro system — then it was doubly so for the organisation’s 700 staff, who were last year offered voluntary redundancy to save on costs, and for users of the Renfrew Ferry, the historic Clyde crossing axed last month as SPT’s budget no longer stretched to its maintenance.
The absurdity of this may have failed to register with the main protagonists, but it was not lost on Purcell, an intuitive politician with a promising future, who sensed wider repercussions. The two main non-executive officials within SPT, Alistair Watson and vice-chairman David McLachlan, are both Labour councillors, while Culley is a former Labour Scottish parliamentary candidate. The row threatened to reflect badly on the party and, with a general election campaign looming, that couldn’t be allowed to happen. Purcell called Watson, who assured him it was a storm in a teacup: all the trips had been approved by the SPT board and the expenses signed off by the relevant authorities. For the moment, he was placated.
Meanwhile, a meeting of senior SPT executives was convened at Consort House, the quango’s Glasgow headquarters, to discuss how they would respond to the disclosures. A strategy was agreed where they would challenge the detail of the information rather than the substantive issues. If they could pick holes in the accuracy of reports, it would undermine their credibility, went the thinking.
Bob Wylie, the organisation’s head of communications and a former investigations editor with BBC Scotland, secured a correction and apology from a broadsheet newspaper, despite providing it with inaccurate figures. This newspaper was threatened with legal action and a referral to the Press Complaints Commission for asking “vexatious questions” about the affair.
For the moment, the SPT line held and the organisation believed the story had been “killed”. A fortnight later, however, The Sunday Times published fresh allegations concerning a trip to Manchester by several SPT officials that coincided with Rangers’ appearance in the 2008 Uefa Cup final.
It was revealed that three officials, who had requested a meeting with the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive in the city on the day of the match, subsequently submitted expenses claims worth £1,700 for travel, meals and accommodation. Questions were raised about the value of the trip and who had benefited from hospitality.
On the back of the allegations, Graeme Hendry, a nationalist councillor on Glasgow council asked the Audit Commission to launch an inquiry. Sandra White, the Glasgow MSP, urged the Scottish parliament’s transport committee to investigate. The stakes had been raised. Rather than simply being accused of lavish spending, there were now suggestions of possible wrongdoing and Purcell wanted answers.
“The issue of SPT’s expenses was getting talked about a lot in here,” said a source in Glasgow’s city chambers. “At first, though there were Glasgow city councillors involved, it was seen as something happening in another organisation. The Sunday Times then started asking questions about the Manchester trip and, when it became clear the pressure just wasn’t going to go away, Steven [Purcell] wanted to know what was going on.”
Watson was summoned to meet the council leader and urged to reveal why, as SPT chairman, he had let the situation develop. He was also asked about apparent discrepancies in hospitality he had registered as a Labour councillor, including on the Manchester trip.
“The meeting was to the point and frank,” said a source. “By the end of it, Steven hadn’t got satisfactory answers to his questions and Watson was told his position was untenable. He had to go.”
Last Monday, Watson announced that he was standing down, citing health reasons. Purcell then visited Culley — who went on sick leave shortly before his expense claims were made public — at his home in the southside of Glasgow. The next day, he too stood down, also citing health reasons. Within hours of that resignation, McLachlan also relinquished his post.
In his resignation statement, Culley was defiant: “I am entirely confident that the investigation being undertaken under the auspices of Audit Scotland will exonerate officers of SPT as all delegations over the past four years were approved in advance by an authority comprising members of every major political party.”
An email sent by Maclennan to SPT staff referred to the “significant changes to the organisation” made by Culley, adding: “We wish him, firstly, a speedy recovery from the health issues that beset him presently and thereafter continuing to make a contribution to his beloved Glasgow in whatever form that may take.”
MAY 14, 2008, was a day for optimism. The unseasonal warmth made it feel more like July as parties of Rangers fans made their way down the M6 in the springtime sun for the club’s most important match in 36 years. Watson, McLachlan and Wylie had known they would be in the city since April 24, the day of the semi-final, when SPT had telephoned Greater Manchester Public Transport Executive (GMPTE) requesting a meeting, ostensibly to talk about the transport requirements of hosting the Commonwealth Games.
The Glasgow officials were quite specific, according to those who took the call: they wanted the meeting to be in Manchester, on that day, despite knowing it would be packed with thousands of fans. Fortuitously, Watson and Wylie, both Rangers fans, secured tickets for the game.
A fortnight beforehand, the SPT trio had booked seats on a train to Manchester via Crewe at a cost of £933. The journeys were later cancelled and the money reimbursed. On the morning of the match, Watson travelled by bus to Manchester courtesy of Castlebrae Drainage, a UK company with offices in Glasgow, which had also provided him with his match ticket. Other guests of the company included Jonathan Findlay, the Labour councillor who would later succeed Watson as SPT chairman.
Before setting off, Watson issued a press release, applauding SPT’s decision to lay on free buses between Glasgow city centre and Ibrox stadium to allow fans to go to the stadium to watch the match on a big screen. “We want to encourage more people to use public transport rather than taking the car ... to watch the big match,” he is reported to have said.
Wylie and McLachlan chose to travel south by car , claiming £261.81 in mileage. Wylie’s daughter, then 13, also travelled to Manchester, although it has not been revealed whether she accompanied her father. They arrived a few hours later at the Macdonald Portal hotel, a golf and spa resort in leafy Cheshire, 40 miles outside Manchester, which would serve as their base. For reasons not explained in the expenses claims, the officials decided to leave the car behind at the hotel, instead travelling into Manchester by taxi at a cost to taxpayers of £70.
Their meeting with GMPTE officials began at 10.20am and lasted for around an hour. According to some of those present, a young girl who arrived with the pair from the SPT waited in the foyer and, at the end of the meeting, she accompanied them when they left. Wylie lunched in San Carlo, an exclusive Italian restaurant in the centre of Manchester frequented by celebrities including Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Davina McCall. Wylie subsequently submitted an expenses claim for lunch and drinks of £138.82. His expense claim form included the intitials “GMPTE”, despite no-one from the organisation being present.
After attending the match, he and McLachlan travelled back to their hotel in Cheshire. Wylie submitted another taxi receipt for £120 dated the day after. His claim for a twin-bedded room over two nights in the hotel came to £385.63, while McLachlan submitted a separate claim for £328.19.
Wylie has refused to comment on whether any of his expense claims covered money spent on his daughter or his son, a 31-year-old lawyer, who was also at the match.
A statement issued yesterday by SPT said: “We are confident that the investigation into SPT’s expenses — currently being carried out by our external auditors KPMG — will establish that no sums are due from Mr Wylie’s expenses claim for the Manchester visit in relation to his or his family members’ attendance at the Uefa Cup final.”
Other documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the organisation commissioned a series of reports from outside agencies between 2007 and 2009 at a cost of £2.4m. Around £120,000 was spent reviewing ticketing operations and £111,000 for a study of “bus standards”.
Smaller amounts included £3,900 on security and anti-terrorism advice for the Partick interchange, and £3,300 on a park-and-ride study in Motherwell. A further £835,000 was spent by the quango on advertising and marketing.
There has been a growing sense of unease among senior Labour figures at the steady stream of embarrassing details emanating from SPT, given the party’s reach within the organisation. With Labour gaining a foothold in the opinion polls — the party is now within six points of the Conservatives, according to a poll in today’s Sunday Times — the last thing that party managers want at this stage is an intrusive torch shone on the murky underbelly of the party’s municipal fiefdoms so close to a general election campaign.
Sources close to Jim Murphy, the Scottish secretary, say he has been keeping a watchful eye on the growing scandal, although it has been denied that he has been in direct touch with Purcell.
The removal of Culley was particularly pressing as far as the party was concerned because of his associations with Old Labour styles of municipal excess.
His appointment as SPT chief executive in 2006 was overseen by a board of 20 mainly Labour councillors drawn from the 12 councils covered by the quango. A career quangocrat — former jobs include directorships of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and the Govan Initiative — he was one of Scotland’s highest-paid public servants, with a lifestyle to match. He drove a Jaguar XJ6 and had a taste for fine dining, with Glasgow’s Rogano restaurant a favoured haunt.
His appointment was condemned by the SNP at the time as a result of a “Labour mafia waving a wand over public appointments”, and even some senior Labour figures were appalled.
As a Labour activist, Culley’s attempt to become a member of the new Scottish parliament for the west of Scotland in 1999 ended in failure, but his candidature earned him kudos with party colleagues.
Within a year he was leading Scotland’s biggest local enterprise agency. Allegations of cronyism continued to dog him — in 2001, questions were raised after a £75,000 public relations contract for his quango was awarded to a bid headed by David Whitton, former spin doctor to the late Labour first minister Donald Dewar. Whitton rejected allegations that cronyism had played any part in the deal.
Meanwhile, a former office manager for Wendy Alexander, another former Scottish Labour leader, ended up working for Culley at SPT. The organisation insisted her job was advertised and awarded on merit.
While Culley was chief executive of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, the chairman was Willie Haughey, a leading businessman and Labour’s biggest Scottish donor. Culley would preside over further controversy over his Labour links in 2006 when Jeane Freeman, a former adviser to Jack McConnell while first minister, was hired to advise him without the work being advertised.
It led Alex Neil, then the chairman of Holyrood’s enterprise committee, to claim at the time: “If you carry a Labour Party card, your chances of getting work within certain sections of Scottish Enterprise increase tenfold. This reeks to high heaven.”
When Culley joined SPT, he appointed Wylie, a former Scottish organiser of the Militant tendency, which attached itself to Labour in the 1980s. Wylie was not only linked to Culley via political ideology but through a friendship that dated back several decades. Culley’s Friends Reunited page records that the director of communications played in the same football team as him, Craigbank Amateurs, adding: “He lived next door to my grannie, Madge McLeod, where I was cared for from 14 onwards.”
A statement issued by SPT yesterday said Wylie’s post was “advertised in The Herald, s1jobs and Local Transport Today. Bob took up the position as director of communications in December 2006.”
Tom Harris, Labour’s former transport minister, appointed Culley in 2008 as a member of the British Transport Police Authority. The post pays £16,000 a year for 30 days’ work, or more than £500 a day. Until 2001, Harris was a media spokesman for SPT.
To avoid any further public relations damage to the organisation, Purcell last week appointed Jonathan Findlay, another Labour councillor, to its chair. Findlay, who had Purcell as best man at his wedding, also attended the Uefa Cup final in Manchester as a guest of the same firm that provided hospitality to Watson.
Eyebrows have already been raised among some opposition politicians, who believe Purcell has not done enough to break with past practices at SPT. There are concerns that it is not an isolated case and that, if scrutiny was applied to other public bodies in the west of Scotland with similar levels of Labour influence, then the same examples of over-entitlement and excess would be found.
“If you look at bodies such as the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the vice-chairs are from other parties, so it is more representative of local government,” said John Mason, an SNP MP for Glasgow East and a former member of the SPT board between 1999 to 2007.
“We raised this in 2006 but Labour refused to deal with it and, in a sense, this is the chickens coming home to roost. There wouldn’t have been this abuse if there had been more of a political mix at the top. Questions were asked of several trips taken by SPT executives, but the reality was Labour had the majority and they did whatever they wanted. The rest of us were just tolerated.”
Hendry said the expenses scandal showed that a dramatic change in culture was needed at the quango. “These Labour councillors have left the board of SPT, but Labour must guarantee that any evidence of wrongdoing found by an independent inquiry will see action taken by the Labour party as well.
“These resignations simply confirm the panic within SPT and Labour across Strathclyde that there is more to come out.”
| A travelogue of excess |
|
| July 3, 2009 |
SPT receives freedom of information request seeking full details of expenses claimed by all its senior officials since 2006 and of spending on overseas trips |
| August 4, 2009 |
SPT refuses the request, saying it would be too expensive to process |
| December 16, 2009 |
Intervention by Kevin Dunion, Scotland’s information commissioner, leads to SPT agreeing to release the information. Ron Culley, the SPT chief executive, goes on sick leave shortly afterwards, citing a heart condition |
| January 17, 2010 |
The Sunday Times reveals the expenses bill and trips on the public purse taking in China, India, America, Singapore, Russia, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic |
| January 24, 2010 |
This paper discloses that the quango ran up a bill of £3.2m on advertising and consultants |
| February 7, 2010 |
Audit Scotland asked to investigate officials’ expenses, including claims for Manchester trip that coincided with Uefa Cup final involving Rangers Football Club. Despite an expenses claim for £138.82 for drinks and lunch submitted by the SPT communications boss Bob Wylie, marked with the initials GMPTE (Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive), the Manchester organisation denies any of its officials lunched with him |
| February 15 , 2010 |
Alistair Watson stands down as SPT chairman citing health grounds. It follows a falling out with the Glasgow council leader Steven Purcell, who is said to be “flaming mad” about the growing scandal that threatens to overshadow Labour’s election campaign in Scotland |
| February 17, 2010 | David McLachlan, the SPT vice-chairman, forced to explain a £17,544 claim for travelling 35,650 miles — equivalent to going almost one-and-a-half times around the world. Purcell confirms Glasgow Labour councillor and lawyer Jonathan Findlay, for whom he was best man, will take over as new chairman. Purcell said Findlay would take “a firm grip of SPT and get to the bottom of everything that is going on there”. Opposition politicians claim Labour’s dominance of the quango is part of the problem |
| February 18, 2010 | Culley resigns as SPT chief executive, citing health grounds. McLachlan “reluctantly” quits, claiming it is “in the best interests of SPT” |
| February 20, 2010 | David Meikle, a Glasgow Conservative councillor, confirms that he intends to call in Strathclyde police to investigate whether any of the quango’s expenses have been claimed fraudulently |
See also:
Two more go from quango in cash crisis
Tories pledge to cut back quangos
Quango set up to boost work skills axes 160
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