Police have launched a fraud probe into Scotland’s national examination body after allegations of ‘financial irregularities’ involving a six-figure sum.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) confirmed officers were investigating one claim of misconduct involving funds in their latest accounts, while two other similar allegations were being dealt with internally.
It comes just a few months after senior executives at the the quango were criticised for spending more than £17,000 worth of taxpayer money on a lavish trip to Saudi Arabia.
READ MORE: Less known about performance of Scotland's schools 'than at any time since 1950s'
A Police Scotland spokeswoman confirmed the force had "received reports of possible fraudulent activities linked to a business in Glasgow".
However, she added: "The circumstances are currently being investigated and no further comment will be made until this is complete.
Details released by the Sunday Mail also revealed top executives spent public funds on trips to Dubai, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, while one exam boss charged the taxpayer for five nights in a five-star Athens hotel with his wife to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
READ MORE: Middle-class pupils paying the price for SNP school reforms, expert warns
A line in the SQA’s annual report for 2018-19 reads: “during 2018–19, one instance of suspected financial irregularity was identified and investigated in line with SQA’s anti-fraud policy and fraud response plan”.
A spokesman for the SQA said: "A suspected case of financial irregularity has been referred to Police Scotland for investigation.
"It would be inappropriate for us to comment further."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here