Transparency in public institutions is vital.
People have the right to know where their money is going and how it is spent.
They have a right to know why these organisations take decisions and the reasons behind them.
When you sign up to take money from the public purse, being open to scrutiny is a key part of that transaction.
Nearly three months ago, The Courier set out its position on NHS Fife’s handling of questions about how much taxpayer money the health board had spent defending itself against a discrimination claim brought by nurse Sandie Peggie.
We wrote that it was entirely reasonable for the people of Fife to know how much of their money was being spent on legal fees at a time when NHS resources are stretched and patients face long waits for care.
This came after Freedom of Information requests from several publishers including The Courier.
And as the organisation claimed disclosing the cost so far would be breaching confidentiality, we said: “This is a nonsense argument.”
This week, Scotland’s Information Commissioner David Hamilton, responsible for enforcing FOI legislation, agreed.
He said: “The commissioner cannot accept that the specific information requested can be the personal data of either of the individuals party to the tribunal.
“The costs are the authority’s, not theirs.”
Olympia rebuke for Dundee City Council
Mr Hamilton did not rule on the disclosure of the total legal costs because they were provided to the health board by the central legal office after the initial FOI requests.
Nevertheless, his intervention is a victory for scrutiny.
As we said in March, public money should never be hidden behind a wall of secrecy.
NHS Fife is not the only organisation in the communities we serve to have flouted its Freedom of Information obligations recently.
We revealed on Monday that Dundee City Council had been rebuked by the Scottish Information Commissioner for “deliberately misconstruing” our request to uncover details of repair works at the crisis-hit Olympia.
But our readers remain in the dark over exactly how £6.1 million of taxpayer cash was spent.
The local authority now says it considers the information to be commercially sensitive.
We welcome the watchdog’s condemnation of the council’s deliberate obstruction.
The Courier has also taken Perth and Kinross Council to the Scottish Information Commissioner after they claimed to hold no communication records on the sudden departure of a £128k-a-year director.
That decision is expected in the coming weeks.
St Andrews opted for openness
The Courier will continue to fight for transparency, to uncover and bring to light the details such organisations may not wish to share.
But in doing so, it is also important to give credit to institutions who opt for openness.
This week, following a request by The Courier, the University of St Andrews chose to publish a five-page letter written by its principal to the chief executive of a charity.
The Wolfson Foundation had expressed concerns about the fallout from rector Stella Maris’ November 2023 remarks about the Israel-Palestine conflict.
The charity later donated £2m to the institution.
We believe that is the correct way for requests to be handled from organisations receiving taxpayer funds.
This publication has a proud record of holding power to account. That will not change.
The more we see attempts to hide and obfuscate, the more questions we will ask.
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