SNP help out their colleagues in the SIF. Again.

Yet more controversy (previously blogged about here and here) about the Scottish Islamic Foundation:

The Scottish Islamic Foundation (SIF) has hit back at criticism about the support the organisation has received from the Scottish Government, calling it "misinformed or jealous sniping".

Osama Saeed, the interim chief executive of SIF, is an SNP candidate for the next Westminster election and believes this has been at the root of press attacks on its funding arrangements.

The government insisted the £210,000 grant given to constitute the group in March and further aid of £190,000 under the Race, Religion and Refugee Integration Fund had been recommended by independent assessors under proper procedures.

According to The Herald, “recommended by independent assessors under proper procedures”, but according to The Scotsman:

The decision to award the RRRI funding was made by SNP Communities Minister Stewart Maxwell. But a spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said last night that the initial assessment for the funding was made by an independent trust.

So, was it the SNP Minister making the final decision to award the RRRI funding after an “assessment” not recommendation by an (unnamed) “independent trust”?
And regarding that “initial assessment”:

The SIF was not able to supply all the documentation which applicants for RRRI cash are asked to provide, including their most recent audited accounts and the most recent annual report.

But according to an (unnamed) “Scottish Government spokesman”:

"Providing every document detailed on the RRRI application form is not a mandatory requirement of securing grant funding. Like every other one of the 33 organisations (that won funding], they provided sufficient information for the process of independent evaluation, led by officials, to take place."

In which case, the logical question would seem to be why bother asking for the documents in the first place? Audited accounts and annual reports are not the be-all and end-all when deciding on the worth of a loan application (and I do have prior experience in this area;)) nor I guess grant application, but they do provide a good guide as to how the business/foundation/charity is being operated. The reason the SIF couldn’t provide them is that they have been only up and running for three months, in which case they must have provided an exceptional application form because as reported on the One Scotland (“the Scottish Government campaign designed to tackle racism”) website:

Race, Religion and Refugee Integration Funding Stream:

Total amount awarded: £5,630,236
There has been an unexpectedly large number of applications, which in total amounted to over £25m, more than four times the available funding, this meaning not all those who applied have been successful.

As I say, that must have been one exceptional application form.