HEALTH Secretary Shona Robison has denied the Scottish Government had been “disingenuous” over its knowledge of the NHS Tayside charity cash row.
Under questioning from Labour’s Jenny Marra yesterday, Robison said auditors had failed to flag up the actions by the former health board heads in 2014.
Senior figures have left their positions since the row – which saw £3.6 million in donations wrongly used to help it break even – came to light.
At a meeting of the Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee, Marra said the spend was confirmed in an annual report for 2014.
However, Robison said auditors had not referred concerns to the Scottish Government.
Marra said: “It is disingenuous for the Scottish Government to say they didn’t know when this report with this information landed on your desk.”
Robison countered: “I have never had a matter of the retrospective use of endowment funds in NHS Tayside escalated to me as a minister.
“There are questions there about internal and external audit, that really something as serious as this we would expect to be escalated.”
Every health board in Scotland has been required to report to the Scottish Government over the matter as Robison tries to restore public faith in Tayside and quell fears about repeat actions elsewhere.
She told the committee, which includes her predecessor Alex Neil: “The returns we have don’t indicate that what happened in Tayside happened in any other board.”
On the financial decisions taken by the NHS Tayside board, she said: “The choices that were in front of them didn’t require them to go down the rout of retrospective endowment funding. They chose to go down a route that required them to set aside normal rules.
“This is not something other boards were doing. That was not the only option open to them and they were wrong for choosing that route.”
The Health Secretary was forced to intervene last month when questions over the use of endowment funds by NHS Tayside emerged.
The revelations led to the health board’s chair and chief executive being replaced, while Scottish Labour and the LibDems also called for Robison to quit.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly stated her faith in
the minister.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel