A COUNCIL officer has been sacked after he was found to be listed as a director of a building firm now being investigated over repair contracts awarded by the local authority.
Scott McDonald, 32, was dismissed from Edinburgh City Council after his connection to the company was discovered.
News of the sacking comes as the council’s Property Conservation Department is under investigation by Lothian and Borders Police for alleged corruption. A total of 18 members of the department and one planning officer have been suspended while the investigation takes place.
The department controls all essential repairs to buildings in Edinburgh and is responsible for £30 million worth of essential works in the capital a year.
The allegations centre on the awarding of contracts by council officials to crony building companies.
The Herald revealed in May that an investigation was under way into alleged fraud at the council department. It reported claims the workers set up a league table to see who could serve the most statutory repairs notices to homeowners.
Independent financial investigators Deloitte are expected to complete the first stage of their separate investigation, running in tandem with the police probe, by September.
However, it is unclear when the department, restricted to specific emergencies and existing problem buildings, will be fully operational again.
Mr McDonald worked for a department closely connected to the property conservation operation that was involved in organising repairs. His company, Traditional Roofing and Building of Ferry Road, Edinburgh, had more than £150,000 worth of contracts awarded to it by the council since 2007, and its relationship with the authority goes back at least five years. Documents obtained by The Herald show some contracts were worth as much as £33,000.
It is understood Mr McDonald was connected to the Edinburgh Stair Partnership, a property management service that helps homeowners organise common repairs and regular maintenance of their tenements.
The council said previously the partnership helped “by taking out the hassle and worry of organising all owners in a stair to make repairs”. That factoring service has now been abandoned.
There is no suggestion Mr McDonald was personally involved in any fraudulent activities, but his company is one of those involved in the council’s statutory repairs scheme.
The Property Conservation Department issues statutory notices for buildings that need work to make them safe, arranges the job through contractors then recoups the cash from owners.
The department charges homeowners 15% of individual repair bills to cover surveys and administrative expenses. In a block of flats with 10 owners paying an equal share of £100,000 of repairs, each pays the £1500 on top of their original £10,000.
However, complaints have been widespread. One homeowner was told he and his 14 neighbours would each pay a share of an estimated £300,000 for stone repairs.
Three years later the work is still being done and the bill is now standing at more than £1m and rising.
The wider two-pronged fraud probe is concentrating on a possible breach of practice over how building repair contracts were awarded and also how homeowners have been charged.
Questions have been raised over the system under which the council retains a bank of contractors who do the bulk of the work undertaken by the Property Conservation Department. There are further concerns over the duration of the contracts, which are fixed-term and are renewed only every three years.
A spokesman for the council declined to comment. Mr McDonald was not available for comment last night.
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