UNISON today (Friday) welcomed the call from Audit Scotland for greater transparency on the costs of five key transport projects.
The public services union said it was clearly wrong that the
full public sector financial commitment for the projects has not been reported
before now and condemned the continued use of expensive PFI/PPP through
so-called Non Profit Distributing (NPD) financing.
Audit Scotland warned that the total estimated spending
commitment over 30 years is £7.5 billion but that the Scottish Government “has
not fully demonstrated the reliability” of its analysis that this is
affordable.
Dave Watson, Head of Bargaining and Campaigns, said: “Two of
these road projects use NPD, while the Borders Rail project failed as an NPD
scheme.
“We have long warned about the high costs and lack of
transparency about PFI/PPP. It is mortgaging future generations to the hilt at
greater cost than conventional financing.
