Councils are investigating whether they will have to slash an extra £86m from their budgets amid claims of a major accounting blunder by the Scottish Government.
A senior councillor in Aberdeen said that double counting in Derek Mackay’s funding package for councils will force town hall chiefs into making even deeper cuts than feared.
Ministers rejected suggestions they had made an accounting error, insisting the figures for the 2018/19 local government settlement will be finalised next month following a consultation process.
Jenny Laing, the co-leader of Aberdeen City Council, said local authorities were told last week that government officials had miscalculated criminal justice funds by allocating them to councils twice.
“This level of incompetence beggars belief, but such mismanagement has become a hallmark of Mr Mackay’s tenure as finance minister,” she told the Press & Journal.
COSLA, the umbrella group for Scots councils, has said local authorities are already facing a £153m reduction in their budgets for day-to-day spending.
Alexander Stewart, for the Scottish Conservatives, said the “enormous shortfall” of £86m will see struggling councils “impossibly squeezed by this further-tightened noose”.
Finance teams at councils in Tayside and Fife are looking at the impact of the changes.
A spokeswoman for Angus Council said it is “too early to say” how they will be affected.
“If there is a reduction in grant this will put even more pressure on our already difficult budget position,” the spokeswoman added.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the funding package for local government will not be finalised before late February.
The spokesman said the blunder clams are “completely untrue”.
“Not a single penny will be removed from the provisional local government finance settlement, which was issued on 14 December, 2017,” the spokesman said.
“This marked the start of the statutory consultation period with local government on the terms of the settlement and the indicative allocations to individual authorities.
“As a result of this consultation period we have been requested to make some adjustments to the provisional allocations by COSLA, on behalf of local government, which we will respond to this week.”
A COSLA spokesman said: “As part of the consultation process around the budget, local government is aware that there is an issue in relation to the individual calculations for councils.
“We understand that revised figures will be issued by the Scottish Government to councils either today or tomorrow.
“We do not know the implications for individual councils.
“We have pressed the point to the Scottish Government about the urgency to get revised figures out to councils as soon as possible and without any further delay.”
