COUNCIL executives in Glasgow have asked police to investigate their own arm's-length construction firm following the departure of a senior officer.
Officials at the local authority have flagged up potential procurement irregularities at City Building, The Herald can reveal.
Council internal auditors called the police after carrying out their own investigation in to multi-million-pound contracts for security equipment, such as CCTV, for City Building.
The internal probe has focused on one senior procurement official at the company, which is wholly owned by the council.
The man, 64-year-old Robert Gordon from Chryston, was suspended this spring from his post as utilities services manager after a major security firm made a formal complaint.
The Monklands Labour activist later resigned and set up his own procurement consultancy.
A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “Following a complaint from a contractor, an investigation was carried out by the council's Internal Audit.
“The subject of that investigation is no longer an employee of City Building.
“Information was also passed to Police Scotland and it would be inappropriate to comment further while any investigation is ongoing.”
It is understood the council investigation focused on the computers and the movements of Mr Gordon.
The official had been in his post, listed as "Utilities Services Manager", for more than 13 years.
His profile on professional social media network LinkedIn described the job as "group manager for procurement and installation of all utilities for all Glasgow City Council projects".
He set up his own company, SSFM Ltd, in July. It is based at his home address in Chryston, North Lanarkshire.
In a new LinkedIn profile, he describes himself as the director of the company, which is named in full as Specialist Services Facilities Management.
A brief CV includes his background of "15 years as head of utility services for all projects for Glasgow City Council" and "six years as head of all fire, security, access, CCTV for Glasgow City Council".
The new profile also says that he "set up" a new security contract for all 32 councils in Scotland.
A spokesman for the SNP, which has been critical of City Building practices in the past, said: "We will support the council in taking whatever actions are required to ensure the integrity of its procurement processes."
Mr Gordon was not available for comment at his home.
City Building has a huge procurement budget, including for fire and security, for council facilities.
Major contractors involved in such work include Scotshield, from Monklands, which has also recently won substantial orders from North Lanarkshire Council.
City Building is Glasgow's flagship arm's-length external organisation or Aleo. It has proved controversial from its creation - with much focus in its early years on hospitality provided for Labour councillors from Glasgow and North Lanarkshire.
The company's founding managing director, Willie Docherty, husband of current Glasgow lord provost Sadie Docherty, left in 2011 to take up a post at Mears Scotland, a semi-privatised competitor in North Lanarkshire.
Mr Docherty was followed out of City Building by other executives with the company forced to borrow £1.5m to pay their redundancy costs.
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