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SCVO responds to claims CEO received govt cash to go on 'sabbatical'1

Governance | Niki May Young | 24 Aug 2012

The Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations has again defended its chief executive Martin Sime after media claims that he accepted £10,000 from the SNP government to go on a "six-month round-the-world sabbatical".

Herald Scotland made this, its second attack on the impartiality of Sime ahead of the 2014 referendum on the independence of Scotland, on Tuesday 21 August. The SCVO's considered response came yesterday afternoon and explains the circumstances by which the funding was used.

The newspaper said in its article that the SCVO confirmed that the grant given to it by the government was used to pay for Sime's travel and accommodation in India, Australia, Africa and the US between 2008 and 2009. The piece pointed to Sime's blog in which he discussed "an intensive set of trips", and said Sime undertook a "brief detour to visit his best friend who was working in Ecuador". The newspaper said that "the revelation Mr Sime was a direct beneficiary of an SNP government grant has raised fresh questions about his position".

The SCVO response makes clear that the funding was received to undertake a study on "government/third sector relationships in different countries around the world" which was conducted with "logical assistance from Civicus, the global alliance of civil society and their network of national civil society organisations". It confirmed that Sime took a break from his role of CEO in order to undertake the study, returning to his post in April 2009.

The government had awarded a grant of up to £10,000 for the project, and £8,923 was claimed by SCVO, while a further £4,627 of costs were incurred by the umbrella body.

"No funds were spent or claimed for personal travel for social purposes," the SCVO asserts.

Alison Elliot, SCVO convenor (chair) was forced to defend Sime last week after the Herald's first attack which revealed emails between Sime and the chief adviser to SNP leader Alex Salmond.

In the emails the adviser pointed Sime to a recent Unite poll showing its members favoured a second question that would allow the possibility of 'devo max'*, something the SNP favours. Sime used the poll in a blog on the SCVO site.

In response to the article, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, Willie Rennie, called for Sime to stand down as CEO of SCVO, saying that the emails represented "hard evidence" that Sime is working closely with the SNP government on the referendum.

Elliot retorted in a written response to Rennie that she would not be asking Sime to stand down and that Rennie's allegations were "proposterous". 

*devo max is a proposal that would give Scotland full economic independence from the UK, but would allow it to stay part of the union in areas such as foreign policy and defence.

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