Dundee City Council has already failed to be open about the costs of the V&A despite agreeing to do so just days ago, it has been claimed.
Tonight councillors will be asked to approve the recommendations offormer Rangers FC chairman John McClelland, who was hired toinvestigate how the budget for the museum ballooned to £80.1 million.
He made a series of criticisms about how the project has been managed to date, as well as a number of enforcement actions designed to avoid the project going off the rails.
However, in a public report, the local authority’s chief executive, DavidMartin, has failed to reveal the costs involved in enforcing the recommendations despite publicly claiming he agreed with Mr McClelland that the council needed to be more transparent.
One of the conclusions Mr McClelland made was that it would have been“helpful” had councillors been given more information about the project.
Now, Labour leader Kevin Keenan has demanded answers as to what the costs are and why they were not included in the report.
Mr Keenan said: “I welcome the McClelland Report and its recommendations. However, it is extremelyregrettable that the council’s first report falls at the first hurdle when it comes to openness and transparency.”
In the report, which will be debated by councillors tonight, Mr Martin indicates that there will be costs involved inimplementing Mr McClelland’ssuggestions.
But he fails to outline how much it will cost the taxpayer, writing only: “The costs of the additional professional resources will be met from existingrevenue budgets and the council’s approved capital plans.”
Last night administration head Ken Guild insisted that any costs would be met in the existing budget and would not lead to a rise in cost.
He added: “The exact cost of putting this in practice is not certain (at this time) but there will be no additional costs involved.”
But Mr Keenan said that was not transparent enough and went against the letter of Mr McClelland’srecommendations.
“The McClelland Report will serve as a permanent reminder to Mr Guild and the SNP administration that they also have a role in scrutiny of every aspect of the council’s business and that Dundee council needs to be more open and transparent whilst spending the public purse,” he added.
The McClelland Report, which was released on August 14, lists a catalogue of gross mismanagement at the V&A project going back to 2011.
He revealed the startling admission that there was no cost or projectmanager employed leaving the hugely ambitious development doomed tospiral out of control.
And he slammed planners for picking an “elite” building design despite having budgeted to do the project on the cheap.
Mr McClelland said it was clear from the outset Kengo Kuma’s design could not be afforded.
He also demanded a total of 15wide-ranging recommendations are enforced to ensure such costly mistakes are never repeated.