The returning officers of Tayside and Fife are entitled to around £60,000 in total for officiating at next month’s Scottish parliamentary elections and the referendum on electoral reform.
Fife Council chief executive Ronnie Hinds can claim about £27,00 under the formula. Richard Stiff, the chief executive of Angus, can claim over £10,000 under the calculation in the Scottish Parliament (Returning Officers’ Charges) Order.
Dundee’s chief executive David Dorward can also claim over £10,000, as can Bernadette Malone, the chief executive of Perth and Kinross.
The chief executives are entitled to the money as returning officers responsible for conducting the vote counts in their areas, but they are not required to apply for the full sums.
The payments cover the organisation of the entire ballots locally from beginning to end, and are based on electorate numbers, with a minimum fee of £2500 per constituency.
Fife Council which is under fire for plans to delay its count has five constituencies. They are Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Mid Fife and Glenrothes and North East Fife.
Angus has two Angus South and Angus North and Mearns as do Dundee (Dundee City East and West) and Perth and Kinross (Perthshire North and Perthshire South and Kinross-shire).
The tasks of the returning officers have been doubled on May 5 and 6 because two counts are taking place.
One is for electing MSPs to Holyrood and the second is the referendum for the alternative voting system for changing the first-past-the-post elections to Westminster, meaning they will be responsible for two sets of ballot papers for each constituency.