Lack of Scottish government of scrutiny over lavish spending at water regulator

The Scottish government could not properly examine luxurious expense in an organism accused of regulating Scottish water, according to a new report.

The Holyrood Public Audit Committee said that the lack of expenses supervision in the water industry commission for Scotland (Wics) was “simply unacceptable.”

A general auditor report detailed how public money was spent sending a senior manager in a course at Harvard Business School in the United States, Mulberry sunglasses and business class flights to New Zealand.

A Scottish government spokesman said the steps had been tasks to improve management in the commission, but recognizing the previous expense “was completely and completely unacceptable.”

Call Richard Leonard described some of the tests heard by the Scottish Parliament Committee as “simply extraordinary.”

He said the commission “did not comply with the application for standards of a public body.”

Mr. Macrae resigned in October last year, months after a letter from Net Zero and the Secretary of Energy, Mairi Mcallan, criticized the way in which Sutherland’s resignation was handled.

But Richard Leonard said the Scottish government had been responsible for the lack of critical supervision of the commission’s expenditure, which had allowed him to continue.

He said: “Some of the evidence we have heard about the arrangements established in Wics were simply extraordinary.

“That the body, accused of promotion, long -term value of Scottish water to its custom, did not meet the required standards of a public body left the committee with deep groups.”

He added: “But the committee is also clear that it also seems to have a serious lack of supervision of the Scottish government.

“This failure of those who are to protect the public bag is simply unacceptable.”

The role of the commission is to promote the interests of water and simple customers and ensure that Scottish water provides profitable services to the ministerial objectives.

The Committee’s report acknowledged that there were generalized changes in the Board and Management since the findings of the General Auditor were published.

However, he urged the current Board to undergo an update training in their roles and response to ensure that the failure of the response does not happen again.

Leonard said: “We have heard about significant changes within Wics and the organization’s commitment to improve governance arrangements. These are clearly welcome.

“But we because seeing concrete evidence of these changes to ensure that the unacceptable culture that was really gone.”

A Scottish government spokesman said he had tasks to improve commission management.

They said that a complete response would be to provide in due time.

“The ministers have a clear leg that the expenditure approach to Wics until December 2023 was completely unacceptable,” they added.

“We have tasks to improve our sponsorship function, completing all the management actions established in the internal revision of the WICS sponsorship published last November.”

The interim president of Wics, Ronnie Hinds, said: “With the direction of our Board and, through the commitment of our leadership and staff, we have decisive action tasks to strengthen governance, improve financial controls and incorporate a culture that is firm that it is firm in value.

“All in Wics continue to focus completely on recovering trust and reaffirm our role as an economic regulator that defends the highest standards, both the regulatory approach and in our administration of public resources.”