PAYMENTS handed to senior council officers for overseeing elections lack transparency and should be scrapped, MSPs have said.
A parliamentary report found returning officers in some wards received fees that were too high amid calls for any review to ensure all staff involved in elections were appropriately rewarded.
The call for an overhaul follows a series of Herald articles which revealed how Scotland's 32 local authority chief executives had pocketed around £1 million in returning officer fees in just two years - the payments coming on top of their core six-figure salaries.
Herald View: Returning Officers’ fees do not add up
Glasgow City Council's current chief executive banked £75,000 on top of the best-paid job in Scottish local government, around £90,000 went to Edinburgh's returning officer, and payments of £50,000-plus made to the heads of North and South Lanarkshire, Fife and the Highlands.
The Herald also revealed that around half a dozen council chiefs stood down in 2014 and 2015, enabling them to add the one-off fees to their final salary pensions.
Convener of Parliament's local government and communities committee, Bob Doris MSP, said: “Our committee has found that the current system of payments to returning officers is lacking transparency, which could have an impact on people’s views on the integrity of the system.
“There is a lack of transparency around the value of these payments and how they are allocated, however we heard that payments can range from £2500 in Orkney and Shetland to over £16,000 in Edinburgh and may reportedly be worth as much £1m in total."
Herald View: Returning Officers’ fees do not add up
The core duties for returning officers include overseeing nominations, polling stations, appointment of officers and clerks, managing the postal votes, verifying and counting votes and declaration of the result.
They are paid from UK Government funds.
Last November, the committee were warned that the excessive fees risked undermining faith in the democratic process and that a drive to make the system more open could become a "witch hunt".
Announcing its findings, the committee said it recognised "the high level of personal responsibility placed on returning officers" which should "remain independent and outwith political control".
It added that the appointment of returning officers and their roles should be reviewed taking into account "the frequency of and routineness of carrying out elections and pressure on resources elsewhere in local authorities".
The Electoral Management Board (EMB), which co-ordinates the administration of local government elections in Scotland, said: "We stressed in our evidence that we would support an objective review of the remuneration for Returning Officers consistent with the approach for other similar roles in public life.”
Fiona Lees, chair of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executive Scotland said: “We are pleased and encouraged that the report recognises the independence, integrity and high level of personal responsibility exercised by returning officers during an election and will fully support a review into the processes of (appointments and remuneration).”
Herald View: Returning Officers’ fees do not add up
A spokesman for Glasgow’s Returning Officer said: “The first priority of any returning officer is to protect the integrity of the election process.
“This particular part of the process has not been evaluated for a number of years and, as Mrs (Annmarie) O’Donnell said in her evidence to committee, Returning Officers will be happy to participate in any review that helps builds public confidence in how elections are run.”
A Cabinet Office Spokesperson said: "It is crucial that elections are properly resourced to make sure that they continue to be run effectively to provide a secure and fair democracy. But we must do this in a spirit of openness and accountability to drive best practice and deliver value for money. We are constantly looking at how we can improve transparency and public awareness about the funding of nationwide elections."
The findings of the report will feed into the Scottish Government's consultation on reform of Scottish Parliamentary elections and electoral registration.
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