Scots civil servants offered £100k ‘cushy jobs' abroad while Holyrood faces ‘significant financial pressure'
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CIVIL servants are being offered 'cushy' £100,000 pay packages to run Scottish Government offices in Denmark, Canada and China, we can reveal.
The jobs are being advertised weeks after it emerged diplomats at the SNP ministers' international bases — dubbed 'pretend embassies' — have spent nearly £1million throwing 300 boozy parties.
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Tories economy spokesman Murdo Fraser has hit out
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Job adverts for 'Head of Scottish Government Office' roles are being advertised
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Adverts for the 'Head of Scottish Government Office' roles promise successful applicants will have 'frequent contact' with ministers, business chiefs and cultural bigwigs.
They even mention the cash crisis facing Holyrood — admitting it is a 'time of significant financial pressure for the Scottish Government'.
Tories economy spokesman Murdo Fraser hit out: 'These cushy gigs are little more than taxpayer-funded platforms to bang the drum for independence abroad while Scotland's public services crumble.
'Scots want action on the state of the roads, NHS backlogs and failing schools — not more nationalist nonsense overseas.
'Hard-pressed Scots will be outraged the SNP is giving lucrative pay packages to pretend diplomats.'
The jobs, in Copenhagen, Ottawa and Beijing, boast salaries of £74,480 to £85,964 with 28.9 per cent employer pension contributions boosting packages to around £100,000.
Events held by the network of nine international offices include a ceilidh at a Brussels roundabout and a cheese and whisky celebration with the Swiss.
External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson said: 'We will never apologise for overseas offices that help showcase Scotland as a country open for business.
"Scotland is consistently ranked best place in the UK outside of London for overseas investment.'
Major Scottish Construction Firm Faces Liquidation in Dalgety Bay
We previously reported how an independent review of the Scottish disability payment has called for the benefit to be simplified and made more accessible.
Applying for the 'compassionate' benefit has been branded as 'soul-destroying' as part of a review commissioned by the Scottish Government.
A report said the Scottish Adult Disability Payment (ADP) process was described as 'much kinder' than the UK Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
But claimants still found it 'inaccessible, complex and burdensome, causing some clients significant stress and anxiety'.
Led by charity leader Edel Harris, the review calls for automatic entitlement to the benefit in some cases.
The Conservatives said the system 'is satisfying no one' and the SNP's persistent claim that they can run things better than Westminister 'continue to ring hollow'.
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