A senior SNP councillor gave a colleague £1,500 to compensate him for losing a special allowance, it has emerged.
Steve Cardownie, who used to lead the Nationalists on the local authority, has confirmed giving fellow councillor Jim Orr the cash sum after his income dropped.
He told the Herald that Police Scotland investigated the circumstances of the payment but had “dropped” the matter.
The transaction came to light in a blog posting by Orr, who was an SNP councillor in the city until he quit the party in 2014 to become an independent.
According to Orr, he found out in 2012 that he was to lose a Special Responsibility Payment (SRA) paid to councillors who undertake extra duties.
He wrote that he would be appointed vice-chair of the Forth Estuaries Transport Authority to help make up for the loss, but that he would still be worse off.
“The FETA SRA was only £3k, so an income gap of circa 1.5k would remain.”
He continued: “By early 2013 there was still no solution to the missing £1.5k and Cardownie decided to address the issue in an unusual way – he said he’d pay it to me personally.”
Orr said he found accepting the payment “totally unacceptable” and came up with an idea for a third party to get the cash.
“I’d spent two weeks of the previous year teaching English in Eastern Europe and already planned to help out the family I had stayed with at some time.
“I knew their youngest kid needed to pay college fees and so I very reluctantly decided to made a counter-proposal…that if Cardownie paid the money directly to her, without me touching it, then I would consider the matter closed.”
He added: "It was a huge compromise, but I did it and gave Cardownie an instruction sheet with bank details. I reasoned that it would alleviate the constant pressure and at least I wouldn’t touch the money. In the back of my mind I knew I could always pay it back."
However, this option was not pursued and Orr said Cardownie gave him the money personally in £20 notes.
Orr wrote: “So I took the money, and sent £300 immediately to the family via a money transfer shop on Nicholson Street and then banked the rest on the 29th, and send the remaining £1200 electronically on 6th February.”
However, Orr wrote that he was unhappy with the arrangement and the police looked into the matter.
Speaking to the Herald, Cardownie confirmed giving Orr £1,500.
“I was helping a colleague who had lost his SRA. It was a genuine attempt to help Jim Orr. He was one and a half short.”
Cardownie said the money came out of his own pocket, as he received a higher allowance from the council:
“I was getting 35 grand a year in total. It was an effort to cushion the blow for Jim.”
Cardownie added: “He wanted me to send it to Kiev. I wasn’t going to do that."
He also said the SNP and the council knew about the arrangement.
He added: “The police have dropped it. I got the impression the police believed it was a waste of time.”
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