Nicola Sturgeon has mocked Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar for “not doing his homework” after claims that the Scottish Government was “cutting” Audit Scotland’s budget.
Mr Sarwar accused the First Minister of cutting the public body’s funding to make it harder for it to “expose the government’s failures” and disguise failures.
However, Audit Scotland’s budget is determined by the Scottish Parliament independently of the Scottish Government.
During First Minister's Questions on Thursday, the Scottish Labour leader said: “Now in the face of uncomfortable truths about their financial mismanagement, SNP figures are openly talking about, and I quote ‘clipping the wings of Audit Scotland’."
He also claimed that the recently published spending review makes “clear that there are year-on-year cuts to come”.
He said: “Isn't it the case that Nicola Sturgeon is cutting Audit Scotland's budget because it makes it harder for them to do their job, it makes it harder for them to expose this government's failures and it makes it easier for her?”
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Nicola Sturgeon accused him of not recognising “basic” facts which she “thought a leader of an opposition party might have known”.
“Oh dear, I thought Anas Sarwar might have done some basic homework before coming to this Chamber,” she said.
“The Scottish Government doesn’t actually set the budget for Audit Scotland.
“The budget for Audit Scotland is independently funded through the Scottish Parliament and the audit fees the public bodies pay for it.”
She added that budget figures for the body in the spending review were illustrative only and “don’t replace the independent processes whereby this parliament scrutinises and determines the budget of Audit Scotland”.
“That’s just basic stuff that I would have thought a leader of an opposition party might have known,” she added.
The accusations came as the report published by the body on Thursday called for improved transparency of public finances spent in response to the pandemic.
Audit Scotland revealed some funding remained unspent but found that overall Covid-19 budget was managed effectively.
Scottish Labour said the public “deserves to know exactly what happened” to the unspent money.
Jackie Baillie, the spokesperson for Covid Recovery for the party, said: “This report lays bare the secrecy and mismanagement at the heart of this SNP government.”
Addressing the First Minister in Parliament, Mr Sarwar accused her of not prioritising Covid recovery as she promised in the recent elections in light of the “damning” report.
He added: “Audit Scotland say there are billions of pounds of Covid money being held back while our public services businesses and workers are crying out for support.”
Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish Government would “pay very close attention to the recommendations” made in the report but disputed it was “damning” and branded it a “very good positive report”.
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