THE SNP failed to disclose that it faced the loss of a £145,000 grant during the crisis caused by its auditors quitting despite Humza Yousaf promising greater transparency.
The SNP leader confirmed the party faced two auditing deadlines - one for accounts and one for spending by its SNP MPs - but failed to say that it also faced a third.
Although the party met the third deadline last week, it did so only days after managing to hire new accountants, and the paper-work they submitted is still being reviewed.
Mr Yousaf revealed last month that the party’s long-term auditors, Johnston Carmichael, had resigned last September and the SNP had struggled to find replacements.
The firm walked away amid a police probe into whether the SNP misspent £660,000 raised for Indyref2 citing a review of its clients.
Mr Yousaf confirmed the party faced a deadline of July 7 to file annual accounts for 2022 with the Electoral Commission, both for the central party and its Westminster group.
He and SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn also admitted the MPs group faced an extra May 31 deadline to give the Commons authorities an auditor’s certificate to certify it spent £1.1million of public support known as Short money correctly in 2022/23.
A failure to hit this deadline could yet cost the party £1.2m in 2023/24.
After becoming SNP leader, Mr Yousaf said he was committed to “improving governance and transparency” and would work on achieving “best practice” in those areas.
SNP deputy Keith Brown also said the party was “one of the most transparent” in the UK.
On May 3, Mr Yousaf announced that Manchester-based AMS Accountants Group had been hired as auditors and would work on the SNP's accounts.
But he did not mention the SNP faced a more urgent May 11 deadline over a policy development grant (PDG) it received from the Electoral Commission in 2022/23.
This is money paid to all parties with at least two MPs to help them with policy, typically through hiring staff, and amounted to £145,281 for the SNP.
The Commission had paid the SNP three-quarters of it (£108,961), but required an audit report showing this had been properly spent before releasing the rest (£36,320).
If the SNP failed to provide it, the Commission would claw back what it had already paid.
An internal Commission document obtained by the Herald states: “The SNP are also in receipt of a PDG. We give up to 75% of the grant in advance and at the end of the financial year, each party must submit an independent audit report confirming that the funds were spent on policy development. We will then either pay the party the full amount of the grant, or we will recover the grant we paid in advance.
“The SNP’s PDG was audited by the same company that audited its internal accounts. Their audit report is due on 11 May 2023.”
The SNP submitted its audit report from AMS on deadline day, May 11.
The next day, Mr Yousaf emailed SNP members an update on his party's Governance Review, saying he would be “open and transparent” with them.
He did not mention narrowly avoiding the loss of the £145,000 PDG the day before.
Scottish Tory chairman Craig Hoy said: “The SNP’s desperate search for auditors was even more pressing than we thought - because of this further deadline they forgot to mention. It’s amazing how the threat of losing party funding focuses minds.
“If only the SNP government were as precious when it comes to taxpayers’ cash.
"Sadly - as the latest announcement on the ferry scandal demonstrated - they are not.”
Asked why the party had not mentioned the risk hanging over the PDG, a spokesperson refused to address the question and said: “The audit deadline of May 11th was met, meaning there will be no delay to the receipt of the final 25% payment for 2022/23.”
The Electoral Commission said: “The Scottish National Party have submitted a final cost report and an auditor’s certificate for their use of the Policy Development Grant for 2022/23. We will now review the final cost report and their auditor’s certificate and make any further grant payment as appropriate.
“We have the right to vary the terms and conditions of any future grant to any recipient party, including the payment schedules. Factors which may result in this include where we have concerns over a party’s previous compliance with the rules.
“The Scottish National Party was allocated a total grant of £145,281.38 in financial year 2022/23.
“In line with the terms and conditions for that grant we have paid the party 75% of that grant up front (totalling £108,961.04).
“The outstanding 25% (£36,320.34) is paid on receipt of a satisfactory auditor’s certificate.”
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