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Displaying 2139 contributions
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
The biggest problem that I see has been governance. Typically, what we have is a small organisation operating out there semi-autonomously that turns in on itself and becomes a little knitting circle that gets out of control. The question is how that can be dealt with, because the organisation is semi-autonomous. What should the Government do to bring it back in and ensure that, while the Crofting Commission or Bòrd na Gàidhlig, for example, retains the autonomy that it needs to carry out its job, the necessary support and overview are in place?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
I ask Pat Kenny also to touch on whether the board members, even if they did not attend such training, would have been aware that training arrangements were in place and that they should be attending.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
Therefore, given the relationship that the sponsor team had with the senior management team, would it be correct to say that the sponsor team attended meetings of the senior management team and/or the board?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
I will pick up on something that you said there. You very carefully said that the staff working for the Crofting Commission were under Scottish Government terms and conditions. Is that the same as saying that they are employees of the Scottish Government who are seconded to the Crofting Commission?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
I have one final question on the back of what we have been talking about. You have already indicated that it is not unusual for there to be seconded staff from the Scottish Government in NDPBs. Although you may not have an answer to this, based on what we are talking about, is that mostly staff being employed on Scottish Government terms and conditions, or is it actually staff being seconded from the Scottish Government, or is it both?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
Do we have a cost for that?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
If there is any information on that, I would be interested in it, because obviously there is a cost to the public purse. Although PPE is essential and the Government is doing everything that it can to ensure that it is available, there is nevertheless a cost, and we should monitor that.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
So it is actually a back-up, rather than primary provision.
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
So everything is now regularised.
My next question is slightly different. The report outlines that NHS NSS took a range of measures to support contact tracing. However, the report does not outline the impact of those measures on the programme overall. To what extent has the success or otherwise of those measures been evaluated?
Public Audit Committee
Meeting date: 4 November 2021
Colin Beattie
I will take a slightly different angle. Your “Crofting Commission Report to the Audit and Finance Committee on the ‘Audit Dimensions and Best Value’ for the year ended 31 March 2021” states that the commissioners
“were apparently unaware of the fact that the Commission can employ staff in their own right, rather than through seconding staff from the Scottish Government.”
Is that correct?