15 February 2002
The charity, the Third Age Group, which was the 'sixth let' that sounded the death knell on Henry McLeish's tenure as Scotland's first minister, was wound up in February 1998 but received two grants of £20,000 from Fife Council, in April 1998 and the following year. A Labour Party worker and a councillor were both involved with the group.
Chief executive Douglas Sinclair was due to report his findings to the council's standards and audit committee on February 12. A council spokeswoman said that the report had been delayed until the end of February to allow Sinclair time to compile 'a full report into anything and everything to do with the Third Age and the council's relationship with it'.
Sinclair concluded in an initial report into the leasing of McLeish's constituency office that the council's actions were 'beyond reproach'. But independent councillor Alex Maxwell said: 'When I attended the standards and audit committee on December 6 it was absolutely clear that Douglas Sinclair's report was a whitewash. Sinclair's conclusions that there was no impropriety by any council officer and that the council's actions were beyond reproach were a travesty.'
On February 10, McLeish secured Labour's candidacy for the Central Fife constituency in next year's Holyrood elections in a reselection ballot.
PFfeb2002
