Following the resignation of Glasgow 2014 Chief Executive John Scott a number of questions arose about why he had resigned.

In the absence of official comment the public were left to read in the Herald (01/07/11)

“A spokeswoman declined to comment yesterday on claims that its board acted after receiving a tip-off about Mr Scott’s tax advice from global accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

It was later reported that Mr Scott had been offered up to £6000 of financial advice from PwC. The firm is refusing to confirm or deny it was the firm at the centre of the affair.”

And the failure of Glasgow 2014 to comment further to its original statement only led to further confusion on events.

I wrote to Lord Smith posing a series of questions and he responded by referring me to an investigation being carried out by the Council’s Chief Executive  which would form a report to the Finance & Audit Scrutiny Committee.

 

I asked the Council’s Chief Executive if my questions were indeed to be answered in his report and when advised that they weren’t I went back to Lord Smith. After all having been told by Lord Smith that he expected my concerns to be answered in the Chief Executive’s report surely he wouldn’t mind now answering them directly.

I’m disappointed that he has ignored the advice of Commonwealth Games Federation Chief Executive Mike Hooper who said “The CGF supports the disclosure of the circumstances that led to resignation”.

Letter to Cllr Dingwall – 17.10.11

Instead Lord Smith and Glasgow 2014 still persist in hiding behind a defence of legal advice even though 2014 officers advise that they fully briefed the Scottish Cabinet on the full reasons behind the resignation.

So whilst MSPs can be told the reasons, Councillors and the people of Glasgow who are actually paying for the Games cannot be told.

Audit Scotland are now investigating the governance arrangements for Glasgow 2014, I hope they can get the answers that Lord Smith so clearly doesn’t want  to share.