THE SNP have warned the Electoral Commission of the “difficulty” in finding new auditors after the previous firm resigned.
Humza Yousaf confirmed on Tuesday that the auditors had quit “round about October” – a few months before the official announcement.
The admission to the elections watchdog comes before a deadline which requires political parties to submit their accounts to the agency by July 7.
According to Sky News, it is understood that the party’s former firm Johnston Carmichael actually informed the SNP it would not be able to carry out the audit due for 2023 in September rather than October.
The broadcaster reports that the party then started to approach alternative firms in late 2022, a search which intensified at the beginning of 2023.
Yousaf told reporters on Tuesday that he was unable to “comment on what was done” prior to becoming leader, but that it was “extraordinary” the party had failed to appoint a new set of auditors.
The First Minister said that one of the party’s “major priorities” was appointing new auditors “quickly”.
An SNP spokesperson told Sky News: “We have informed the Electoral Commission of the difficulty in identifying replacement auditors and the national treasurer has made the party’s finance and audit committee aware.”
Auditors’ departure ‘kept secret’
News of the party’s difficulty in finding auditors comes as The Times reports that the SNP’s ruling council was not made aware of the initial resignation.
The Newspaper states that the withdrawal of Johnston Carmichael was hidden from the National Executive Committee (NEC).
One member told The Times that keeping the resignation secret left the SNP “looking like a party completely bankrupt of morality, transparency and accountability”.
They added: “The ‘golden circle’ within SNP HQ have scored an own goal once again by failing to relay the resignation of the auditors to the NEC.
“I struggle to see the point in the NEC when all we really are is a talking shop to deflect attention away from those who are actually making the decisions”
Yousaf reiterated that he has asked the NEC to undertake a review of “governance and transparency”.
A spokesman for Johnson Carmichael said: “As a regulated organisation, we adhere to our obligations on client confidentiality and do not discuss client business.”
Westminster group
The Herald is also reporting that the auditors walked away from the party’s Westminster group.
Johnston Carmichael stopped acting for the Westminster group around last September having signed off on the SNP’s accounts for more than a decade.
At the time, the treasurer of the SNP Westminster group was Glenrothes MP Peter Grant while the “second officer” was then group leader Ian Blackford, who has since been replaced by Stephen Flynn.
The group is the party’s second largest “accounting unit” and helps run research and staffing budgets for its MPs in the Commons.
According to The Herald, it has an income of more than £1m a year.
Calls for forensic auditors
A former member of the Scottish cabinet has said specialist forensic accountants should be brought in to go through the SNP’s finances, as he warned it is “absolutely unacceptable” that the party’s auditors had quit months ago without members being informed.
Alex Neil, who served in the top teams of both Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, said SNP members need to know why the accountancy firm had resigned from the role.
Neil, who backed rival candidate Kate Forbes in the recent leadership contest to succeed Sturgeon, said: “We haven’t been told why the auditors resigned, we need to know why, what reason was given for them resigning.”
He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme the party’s situation is “absolutely unacceptable, quite frankly”.
The veteran party member said it “appears” the SNP is struggling to find new auditors, as he questioned whether there had been “mismanagement of the party’s finances”.
Neil added: “It’s very unfair, to say the least, on Humza.
“Clearly he’s taken over a complete bed of nails, both in the Government in terms of the shambles of some policy areas as well as in the party, and it’s very worrying that a party that has got 72,000 members, with all sources of income we’ve got, appears to have financial difficulties.
“These difficulties appear to be as a result of mismanagement of the party’s finances.
“We really have to get to the bottom of this. My own view is Humza should bring in special accountants, called forensic accountants, and report back to the party at the earliest opportunity.
“Let’s get to the bottom of this, let’s get it sorted and move on.”
