In my last post I revealed how much the grazings constables (appointed illegally in my opinion and in the opinion of others, including knowingly by the Crofting Commission itself) were being paid.
But what has been the overall cost of the alleged abuse of power within the Crofting Commission that has been dubbed ‘The Common Clearances‘?
A Freedom of Information request has disclosed that as at 1 July 2016:-
- Colin Kennedy, Marina Dennis, William Swann and David Campbell (all Commissioners) together with a member of staff travelled to Stornoway to attend a meeting of the Mangersta shareholders on 16-17 May 2016 at an overall costs including flights, accommodation and subsistence of £2,005.
- Donna Smith (Crofting Commission member of staff) and Colin Souter (‘Grazings Constable’) went to visit Upper Coll shareholders on 23 June 2016 at a cost of £852.40.
- The cost of the ‘grazings constables’ as disclosed in my last post was £5,886.85.
- Thus adding these figures together gives a total cost of £8,744.25.
But that figure is very much the tip of the iceberg.
There was an earlier visit to Lewis by the Crofting Commission to meet shareholders at Upper Coll before the decision was taken to remove the grazings committee from office.
There is the huge number of hours spent by Scottish Government officials, Crofting Commission officials and Crofting Commissioners on the debacle.
There is the legal expenses incurred by the Crofting Commission which reputedly includes the engagement of external counsel.
One of the grazings constables purports to still be in ‘office’ carrying out wholly unnecessary and dubious activities that he will no doubt still be paid for.
All costs that could and should have been avoided and better spent on the legitimate and proper regulation of crofting.
But perhaps more significant is the human cost. Something that cannot be quantified in pounds, shillings and pence. The devastating affect that the Crofting Commission has wrought on crofting communities with accusations of financial impropriety that have ultimately been withdrawn or still remain hanging.
One final observation: Why did the Crofting Commission meet the costs of their Convener, Colin Kennedy, attending the meeting in Mangersta in May 2016? He was not officially supposed to be there, he had a conflict of interest that was acknowledged but he insisted on attending albeit in silence. Was he doing so in a personal capacity rather than an official one? Whatever the position should the Crofting Commission have been meeting his travel and accommodation costs? A question (amongst many others) for Audit Scotland to answer perhaps.
Somewhere I can’t help feeling this must be an ego problem. Someone high up in the commission has made a (possibly genuine) mistake, and now cannot find the courage and humility to say ‘sorry, everyone, I got it wrong’. And no-one else on the commission has the bottle to tell him (because it will be a him), ‘sorry, old man, you have to go’.
Swords are for falling on, guys. Think of resignation as damage limitation: when there finally is an enquiry into all this, the reputation of everyone on the commission will be in tatters.
The reputation of everyone within the commission ought to be in tatters, they in effect condoned a known person (known to them and just about every other authority under the sun) to take up the position, firstly as commissioner and then as convener, he was himself in dispute with the commission for a number of years,
his reputation known far and wide and whoever it was who voted him onto the commission in the first instance, truly need their heads looked at.
At the hustings in Fort William I told the man in question that should he be elected to the Commission he would waste tax payers time and money , so I was right enough .
Thank you Brian for your blog.