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EU Commission Puts SNP in the Sin Bin


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It's Friday and it's time for the latest edition of the SNP's long running soap opera "We're Just a Bunch of Chancers And We Haven't Got A Clue".

 

 

SNP determined to stop charities going bust over £22m EU funding howler

Charities have warned they could go to the wall if the European Social Fund money is not reinstated soon.

John Swinney today insisted the SNP Government is determined to stop charities going bust because of their EU fundinghowler. 

The Deputy First Minister attempted to reassure MSPs after the Record revealed the European Commission has frozen more than £20 million in grants amid concerns over “deficiencies” in how the Scottish Government is managing the cash. The European Social Fund money is supposed to be used to tackle poverty and help people from Scotland’s deprived communities find jobs. Charities have warned they could go to the wall if the funding is not reinstated soon.

Labour MSP Jackie Baillie raised the scandal at Holyrood. She said: “The Deputy First Minister will be aware that millions of pounds of European funding could be withheld from voluntary organisations and local authorities across Scotland.

“Given that could lead to employability projects closing, job losses and cuts to services for vulnerable people, why did the Government not heed the warnings more than a year ago?

“It is the Government’s responsibility to administer the scheme, so why has nothing been done to avert the crisis? Will the Deputy First Minister act urgently and guarantee to fund the £22 million gap?”

Swinney, who was standing in for Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions, stopped short of guaranteeing the government would plug the funding gap.

But he said: “I acknowledge the importance of the issue and the manner in which the member sets it out, because the issue affects the prospects of a number of third sector organisations on which we all rely in our communities.

“We understand those concerns, and those of local authorities, and we have been engaging in discussion with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on that question. “We are determined to avoid any charity or third sector body going out of business as a result of the issue.”

Swinney said the government had been in discussion with the EU Commission in a bid to solve the problem. He added: “I assure Jackie Baillie that intense activity is under way to resolve the questions and to give the security and certainty that third sector organisations want.”

The SNP Government runs the scheme in Scotland and was allocated a total budget of £412 million for the period 2014-2020. But audits in September 2017 and last July uncovered “deficiencies in the functioning of the management and control systems” put in place by the Scottish Government. The EU Commission has halted payments worth about £22 million until they are satisfied the correct processes are in place. No payments have been made since December.

There are fears small voluntary groups could be particularly at risk as they are likely to have no other source of funding and little reserves.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/snp-determined-stop-charities-going-16301568

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The bureaucracy surrounding ESF and ERDF funding  that is accessed via the EU Commission is unbelievably long winded, with many many hoops that need to be jumped through when applying for and receiving the funds.

 

The funding models are often complicated by the matched funding principle - whereby the funding can only be accessed when it is matched by another source.   This is where charities can become unstuck, e.g. if they are reliant on two sources of funding which are then sometimes matched themselves in other ways, and if someone in the chain doesn't keep appropriate receipts or file returns in a timely manner, the whole thing can become an unseemly mess.

 

IIRC, each individual return has to be audited before funds are released, by which point in a project, the funded body/charity will have likely committed their spending, hence why the outcry at the EU Commission delaying payments from December.  It is probably likely that even payments due to be made since December relate to funding returns provided from years previously, further increasing the financial difficulties of those organisations.

 

From memory, the Scottish Government themselves employ a team of auditors who go and check individual returns and recommend their approval for payment.   Its not a job I would want to do, the level of detail is excruciating and unnecessary in my view.

 

None of this of course is an excuse for bad management.   Indeed, the Skills Funding Agency down south has had all sorts of problems of their own in recent years, and I'm sure I heard about issues in NI as well.    But as I say, the way the funds are structured make this sort of thing inevitable.

 

There may well be some of us who have experience of this stuff and more more knowledge than I do. 

 

Anyway... Just some context before we conclude that this is some sort of nationalist conspiracy.

 

 

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“From memory”

“IIRC”

did Swinney write that for you?

?????

 

Anyway, while we’re on the subject of SNP fukkups, did the SNP ever sort out the missing payments due to our farmers? 

Edited by Bill
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5 hours ago, Bill said:

“From memory”

“IIRC”

did Swinney write that for you?

?????

 

Anyway, while we’re on the subject of SNP fukkups, did the SNP ever sort out the missing payments due to our farmers? 

Haha.  Nice try, Bill.  :seal:

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6 hours ago, BEARGER said:

The bad EU and the more bad SNP. Hilarious on here at times, oh the irony.

It's panto land on here at times.

 

There must be goodies and badies.

Context is welcome but must be the right kind of context or it isn't welcome.

 

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6 hours ago, BEARGER said:

The bad EU and the more bad SNP. Hilarious on here at times, oh the irony.

You have to learn that ridiculing something isn't the same as refuting it. Making these adolescent spoutings in no way detracts from the truth of something I'm sure you'd rather have had swept under the carpet.

 

This topic presents yet another example of incompetence in government and you refusing to acknowledge it because it undermines your obsession with a failing SNP administration is hugely revealing. Surely your convictions can't be so shallow as to require you to act like a child to defend them?

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