Scotland’s top civil servant has claimed it is “not possible” to say how much the Alex Salmond debacle cost the taxpayer.
Leslie Evans said the Government does not record the amount of time in-house lawyers and officials work on particular issues.
Labour MSP Jackie Baillie said: “It is time the Scottish Government came clean about the true cost to the taxpayer of the botched handling of sexual harassment claims.”
A Holyrood committee is investigating how the SNP Government handled complaints of sexual misconduct against Salmond.
The former First Minister challenged the Government in court and it was ruled that the internal investigation had been unlawful and tainted by apparent bias.
After his successful court action, Salmond called on Evans, the Permanent Secretary, to consider her position.
The Government later confirmed that a final settlement of £512,000 had been made in relation to the judicial review.
At a recent session of the Holyrood inquiry, Baillie asked Evans to put a figure on the wider costs to the public purse.
She said: “You said that the cost of the litigation in relation to the settlement for the former First Minister was £512,000 or thereabouts. Can you tell us the total cost to the Scottish Government?
“I am thinking of things such as in-house lawyers, civil servants and senior counsel. If you do not have that figure to hand, I would be happy for you to write to the committee about it.”
At the time, Evans responded: “I do not have the figure to hand.”
In a letter to the Committee, Evans came back on the same subject:
"It is not possible to provide this figure. Dealing with this case was part of the normal range of duties undertaken by a number of different civil servants, including lawyers in the Scottish Government Legal Directorate.
“Civil servants receive a salary rather than being separately remunerated for dealing with particular matters. In addition, they do not record the proportion of their time that they spend working on particular matters as a matter of course.
“It is therefore not possible to say how much was paid to lawyers or other civil servants employed by the Scottish Government for dealing with this matter.”
Baillie said: “It is clear the true cost to the taxpayer is well in excess of the £512,000 settlement.”
Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said:
“Time and time again, Leslie Evans doesn’t appear to know the answers to many of the serious issues this inquiry is trying to get to the bottom of.
“It is imperative that the Scottish Government are open and transparent with taxpayers who have been left footing the bill for their mistakes.
“It’s simply not good enough to say it isn’t possible to provide the true cost of how much this work cost taxpayers.”
