A WHISTLEBLOWER at the Scottish Police Authority has accused the watchdog of a misuse of public funds, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Details of the claims remain under wraps after the SPA applied for an anonymity order at an employment tribunal, however, it is claimed that the funds in question are ‘sizeable’.

Whistleblowers’ charity, Public Concern at Work (PCaW), which has come forward to reveal details of the dispute, criticised the SPA for trying to “shield” itself from “embarrassment”.

SNP MSP Alex Neil, who last year accused the SPA of Kremlin-like secrecy, said: “This whistleblower should be fully protected, as it’s whistleblowers who reveal what is really going on in an organisation.”

He said that Susan Deacon, the recently-appointed chair of the SPA, should intervene: “Susan Deacon should ask the judge to reverse the anonymity order because it runs contrary to everything the Parliament expects in this area. The SPA has in the past been run as a secret society and it is a very good opportunity for Susan to send a loud and clear message that the SPA has changed.”

As the national oversight body for the single force, the SPA helps set the £1billion policing budget and holds the chief constable to account.

However, the SPA’s reputation has taken a hammering over the last two years over financial mismanagement and allegations of secrecy.

In December, Auditor General Caroline Gardner issued a critical report into some of the SPA’s “unacceptable” uses of public money.

She revealed that two relocation expenses payments worth £67,000 for deputy chief constable Rose Fitzpatrick, as well as the same officer’s £53,000 personal tax liability, had been authorised by the SPA.

The report also focused on the appointment of three temporary senior staff at a cost of £344,000, as well as the early retirement deal given to ex-SPA chief executive John Foley.

At the time, Labour MSP Jackie Baillie, who was acting chair of Holyrood’s Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny (PAPLS) committee, said the case was “probably the most shocking example” of mismanagement she had seen.

The Sunday Herald can now reveal that an SPA employee, through whistleblowing legislation, raised serious concerns about alleged financial wrongdoing at the oversight body. An employment tribunal is examining the claims.

The identities of the people linked to the allegations are secret because the SPA successfully applied for an anonymity order. The legal curb triggered the involvement of whistleblowing charity PCaW, which tried to get the decision reversed.

Speaking to the Sunday Herald, PCaW chief executive Francesca West said: “We became aware of this whistleblowing case and the anonymisation order blocking the names of individuals connected with the alleged wrongdoing. We felt that this was being used to shield the Scottish Police Authority from embarrassment. The public have a right to know about matters of misuse of public funds - particularly in the case of sizeable sums of money.”

She added: “Unfortunately our application for the anonymisation order to be lifted was refused and we are considering appealing.”

The revelation means the publicly-funded SPA has sought to censor the amount of information that can be discussed during the tribunal case, which is ongoing.

Tory MSP Liam Kerr, who is deputy convener of PAPLS and his party’s justice spokesman, said: “This appears to be an extremely serious situation for the SPA. By seeking to keep the details of this buried, suspicion will only intensify, particularly given the negative publicity of recent months.

“There is now a chance for the new SPA regime to prove its culture is changing, by coming clean on this murky case. Anything less may only damage its reputation further.”

In 2016, the SPA was criticised after proposing to stage committee meetings in private and withhold board papers until the day of a meeting.

Moi Ali, at that point an SPA board member, spoke out against the changes and received a strongly worded letter of disapproval from the then chair Andrew Flanagan.

Ali resigned from the board and described Flanagan’s letter as tantamount to “bullying”, after which he quit as chair. Flanagan was replaced as chair by Deacon, a former Labour MSP. The whistleblowing allegations are understood to pre-date her time at the SPA.

An SPA spokesperson said: “SPA is committed to thoroughly investigating all whistleblowing allegations raised with us. While SPA’s recent set of accounts were unqualified and unmodified by the Auditor General, a number of examples of poor governance and poor value for money were identified - concerns which the new Chair of the SPA has acknowledged. An accelerated programme of improvement is underway to ensure that further improvements in SPA decision-making, transparency and process are made in the future. Confidentiality within an ongoing legal process is appropriate and we will not comment on an individual case.”