Chamber and committees

I apologise for interrupting but, if the Scottish Government’s view is that there is a recurring breach of the governance framework and major issues from the top down, can you not do anything about it? Is there no recourse in a case of such constant breaches?

I am grateful for your humility in that respect.

Do you think that it was related—

I will close off the issue of executive training by referring to correspondence from the former COO to Donald MacRae, Robin McGill and David Satti. I was quite surprised when I read the email chain from March 2024, in which the former COO expressed the view that they had requested a much cheaper, more local option for advanced management training, but there seemed to be an insistence on the use of North American institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford. Why was that?

I am specifically not mentioning names, because our lines of questioning are about processes and practices, rather than individuals and personalities, and I want to stick to that.

Let us talk about the former CEO’s position and departure—I am sure that you will be expecting this question to come up. When did the former CEO get sight of the section 22 report, and what was his reaction to it? Does anyone recall?

Do you think that it was related to the content of the section 22 report, which clearly highlighted a number of the issues that the committee is interested in?

We do not have a lot of time, so—

Good morning. I will stick with this line of questioning.

Mr Satti, I am just trying to get my head around the fact that a KC was on a retainer for a considerable period of time. It is unclear how that relationship came about: whether it was procured through due process or was simply a relationship on a one-to-one level between the former CEO and that individual. Nevertheless, that relationship endured. You said that you have since cancelled that on-going payment.

I am not sure whether you are able to share the approximate value of that contract, but I presume that it will pop up in some accounts. If you could let us know how much that is, that would be helpful. More importantly, does the contract’s removal leave a gap in your ability to get proper high-level advice around the nature of the work that you are supposed to be doing? Will you have to go out and re-tender the work?

Was the Scottish Government aware of the fact that a public body had a senior counsel on retainer? Is that normal practice in public bodies, or is that abnormal?

Who decided that there were no grounds for gross misconduct?