News.Scotland.Org

In a sensational issue one of the government minister made an eye raising announcement previous night on the move to sell his shareholding in an energy company after he was alleged of a ‘conflict of interest’. It was learnt that the minister owns £30,000 of shares in Scottish Power. Stewart Stevenson, the minister under allegation is responsible for drawing up Scotland’s target on renewable energy. After a question was raised by one of the newspaper spokesman over the breach of ministerial code of conduct by Stevenson, the SNP government denying all allegations on Mr Stevenson said he has the right to hold the share even while dealing with ScottishPower as the transport and climate-change minister.

Later in the evening after a dramatic day full of negotiations with Alex Salmond, the first minister, his advisers and Mr Stevenson. He announced to sell those shares in order to avoid any insight of conflict of interest. Making a statement last night at around 8:20pm he said “I know that there has been no conflict of interests, and I cannot see any likely conflict of interest in these shareholdings and general legislation. However, I am passionately committed to the climate-change legislation that I will be charged with bringing forward as a minister. “Given that the ministerial code does speak about perception, I am disposing of all energy company shares to remove any scintilla of any possible conflict at any time in the future.”

This ruckus on the holding of share by Mr. Stevenson began with the question raised by one of the dailies over the government. The question was whether he is going to sell the shares, or will keep him away from any discussions with the ScottishPower. It is also known that the company is a key player of the energy market in Scotland and deals in coal fired electricity generation and is moving towards the renewable energy sector.

Ending the silence over the issue Bob Graham of the campaign group Highlands Against Wind Farms said, “There is a clear conflict of interest here. He is going to make recommendations that are going to have an impact on ScottishPower. This government has to be seen to be squeaky clean. Its credibility is up for grabs.” The government spokesman informed that in order to avoid any chance of doubt over Mr. Stevenson, he will dispose his shareholdings in ScottishPower and also few other shares which he has in Scottish and Southern Energy. Even his wife who also has some shares of the same company will dispose her shares too.

The spokesman further added that all this was decided by Mr. Stevenson as provided for in the ministerial code and has informed in writing about the issue to the first minister and permanent secretary. Adding more he said, Mr. Stevenson will not engage in any further shareholdings while being in ministerial office. This wrangle over the shareholdings has caused problems for the Scottish government and also for the first minister. The government avoiding any problems from this conflict of interest bringing any distrust from the people, acted timely and sought out this issue without further delay.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS