THE boss of the civil servants' trade union who claimed there was a "culture of fear" in the Scottish Government when Alex Salmond was First Minister is to be questioned at Holyrood probe next week.
Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA, is to be quizzed by MSPs on Tuesday after he claimed in his written submission to the probe that alleged bullying hung over officials and that staff felt they could not raise formal complaints because it would damage their careers.
Referring to the period around September 2010 he said it had come to the union's attention senior staff were left feeling "unable to speak truth to power" and did not trust management to handle complaints properly or maintain confidentiality.
READ MORE: Former civil service chief defends culture in Alex Salmond government
"Although action was taken and short term improvements or apologies were made, this did not bring about an overall change in culture. Some civil servants expressed to us that they were operating in a culture of fear and were unable to speak truth unto power and discharge their duties effectively."
He went on: "The culture within the ministerial offices in the organisation was such that despite the support of FDA, some members made clear to us that they did not trust SG to handle complaints effectively or to ensure confidentiality of the complainants ... In particular, members in the former First Minister’s office indicated that they felt isolated and out of the policy protection of the rest of the SG. Individuals spoke in confidence and did not wish to raise complaints because they thought this may be detrimental to their career aspirations or their current role."
In his submission to the inquiry, published on Thursday, Salmond’s top official defended the culture of the civil service at the time as he told MSPs he was prepared to appear in person.
READ MORE: Alex Salmond's lawyer referred by watchdog after discussing trial on train
Sir Peter Housden, Permanent Secretary from 2010 to 2015, cited information from an annual survey which found that in 2010 87% of staff felt they were treated with respect in 2010, 3% above the UK Civil Service norm.
He went on to say that while it was clear more could be done to protect women and other employees and to ensure “egregious behaviour by people in powerful positions is strongly disincentivised”, he defended the measures the civil service had in place at the time.
"I believe...we took all reasonable steps in 2010 to 2015 to ensure that the culture and procedures within the civil service were appropriate to our task and meet our duty of care to staff,” he wrote.
He discussed the role ministers had on the working environment and said concerns had been raised which had been dealt with informally by him. He added he could not reveal the names of the individual ministers involved.
The cross-party inquiry is looking at the Scottish Government’s in-house harassment probe into Salmond in 2018 and the development of harassment policies.
The former First Minister had the exercise set aside in a judicial review, with a judicial review ruling it had been unfair, unlawful and “tainted by apparent bias”. The collapse of the Scottish Government’s complaint case in January 2019 left taxpayers with a £500,000 bill for his costs.
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