THE SNP is facing the loss of more than £1million of public funds if it cannot find a new auditor to sign off its Westminster finances, it has emerged.
The party’s Westminster Group, which relies on money from the Commons authorities to pay staff wages, needs to find new auditors by May 31 to avoid a cash crisis.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn is facing questions about what he knew and when about the situation, and what he will do to end the “chaos”.
SNP leader and First Minister Humza Yousaf revealed earlier this week that the SNP’s auditors, Johnston Carmichael, had resigned in September last year amid a police investigation into the party’s bookkeeping.
The party has yet to find a new company to sign off its £4million accounts for 2022, and faces a fine if it is late filing them with watchdogs by July 7.
The problems of the SNP Westminster Group, which lost Johnston Carmichael as their auditors at the same time and has also yet to appoint a replacement, are even more acute.
READ MORE: Scotland Office minister to end SNP monopoly of New York's Tartan Week
The Group, which pays for staff, research and travel for the SNP’s 45 MPs, had an income of £1.5million in 2021, around two-thirds of which was so-called Short Money.
This is state funding given to all opposition parties in the Commons with two or more MPs.
The SNP’s short money allocation for 2022/23 was £1.15m.
Under Commons rules, parties have until May 31 each year to provide the parliament’s authorities with a “certificate from an independent professional auditor” confirming the money claimed for the previous year was spent “exclusively in relation to the party’s parliamentary business”.
If a party cannot provide an auditor’s certificate by then “no further financial assistance... shall be paid until such a certificate is furnished”.
It means that if the SNP Westminster Group cannot find an auditor soon and meet the deadline, it will struggle to pay its staff.
One worker told the Scottish Daiily Mail the situation was “really worrying, especially if you think colleagues could be made redundant because of the mess the party is facing”.
They added: “No one seems to have been told the auditors had withdrawn their services. Everyone is kept in the dark.”
Scottish Labour Ian Murray today wrote to the parliamentary authorities about the “alarming” situation, and sent a series of questions to Mr Flynn.
Mr Yousaf said he was only told Johnston Carmichael had quit after he became SNP leader at the end of March, despite the party lacking auditors for more than six months.
Mr Flynn, the MP for Aberdeen South, became SNP Westminster Group leader at the start of December, after ousting Ian Blackford.
He also replaced Mr Blackford as “second officer” on the SNP’s Westminster Group accounting unit, with MP Peter Grant continuing as Treasurer.
In his letter to Mr Flynn, Mr Murray asked him when he first learned the group lacked an auditor, whether the group would be able to submit its annual accounts on time, and what protection was in place for staff in case the SNP’s Short Money was withdrawn.
READ MORE: Cumbrae: Millport anger after 70 per cent rise in ferry fares
Mr Murray said: “The chaos engulfing the SNP’s finances is now putting jobs at risk and threatening the functioning of their already fragmented parliamentary group.
“The people of Scotland face being denied the parliamentary voice that they voted for due to the financial incompetence of the SNP.
“We need to know today what Stephen Flynn is planning to do to end the chaos that he has inherited.
“It is vital, in the interests of transparency – something that is becoming increasingly clear the SNP knows little about – that these questions are answered in full and without delay.”
It also emerged this week that the SNP's ruling body, it's National Executive Committee, was kept in the dark about the auditors quitting.
Business convener Kirsten Oswald, the MP for East Renfrewshire, is a key figure in steering the NEC's work.
Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy said: “If anything ought to persuade the SNP to belatedly open their financial books, it’s surely the threat of losing well over £1m in taxpayer funding at Westminster.
“The jobs of blameless Commons staffers are on the line due to the party’s shameful secrecy and financial incompetence.
“It beggars belief that apparently only a tiny clique at the top knew until a couple of days ago that the party’s previous auditors had resigned.
"That cabal reportedly includes MP Kirsten Oswald – if that’s the case, she has serious questions to answer over why she hushed this up for so long.”
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "Amidst the bin-fire engulfing the governing party of Scotland there are now junior Commons staffers who have been left at risk and in limbo.
"They didn’t ask for this."
Johnston Carmichael quit citing “a review of our client portfolio and existing resources and commitments".
It coincided the party failing to inform the Electoral Commission on time that chief executive Peter Murrell had loaned it £107,000.
Mr Murrell, who is married to Nicola Sturgeon, was arrested and questioned by the police ast week and released without charge, while officers searched the couple’s home.
Police Scotland is investigating if £660,000 raised by the SNP specifically for a second referendum campaign was been spent on other things.
The SNP has been asked for comment about the Westminster development.
Earlier this week it confirmed Johnston Carmichael no longer audited the MPs' group, and had left at the same time it quit the central party operation.
The party said the group was “in the process of appointing auditors”.
However, in a separate statement, the SNP also admitted it had been struggling to find new ones to audit the central party, with searches in the autumn and New Year falling flat.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel