Down The Pipe
As alert readers will have noticed, Wings has been perusing the SNP’s Governance And Transparency Review over the last couple of days, a document which tentatively attempts to discern just how big a mess the party’s previous leadership has left it in.
(SPOILER: a really big one.)
The paper has now also reached the mainstream media.
Wings already touched on that particular aspect of the party’s mismanagement back in August, but in the light of the report now formally acknowledging the problem it’s worth taking a moment to establish just how astonishingly bad it is.
Because the issue certainly isn’t neglect. According to the internal review the SNP’s IT systems are a crumbling, broken shambles despite having absolutely mindboggling amounts of money spent on them in recent years.
During the Nicola Sturgeon era, the SNP spent almost TWO MILLION POUNDS (or £1,976,884 if you want to be precise) on its ICT systems. That’s around £100,000 for every single member of staff the party employs. The figure has trebled since 2015, and almost doubled last year alone.
And yet somehow they’re still outdated and not fit for purpose.
Readers may have spotted that the accounts have since 2017 included the exact same note about the “significant investment” being made “to upgrade SNP computer systems”. But even after six consecutive years of that, they’re apparently still garbage.
The most expensive tier of Salesforce CRM’s service – which is designed for companies much much larger than the SNP – comes with a hefty price tag: $330 per user per month.
(You get all the same features on the second-highest Enterprise tier at half the price except for “24/7 support”, and an organisation for whom the “customer lifecycle” is basically an election every couple of years, not every day, just doesn’t need that sort of emergency cover.)
But for 20 employees even the “Unlimited” package comes out at around £65,000 a year in total, which over eight years would be £520,000. That in itself would be a quite remarkable extravagance, since all most voters actually need to know to vote for the SNP is that they’re (notionally) in favour of Scottish independence.
But it still leaves 75% of the £2m figure unaccounted for, which means that ON TOP OF that £520K (if indeed they’ve been so insanely profligate as to spend that much on Salesforce), the SNP has spent an average of £10,000 PER EMPLOYEE EVERY YEAR since 2015 on computer equipment.
And readers, as a website whose premises are stuffed floor to ceiling with computer equipment, we cannot even begin to imagine how to achieve that level of expenditure, let alone how to do so without ending up with something that works properly.
The SNP’s finances stink like a factory farm in a heatwave next to an open sewer that someone just dumped a lorryload of burning sulphur into, then tried to put it out with ammonia. The best of the available explanations is that the party has been run by the fiscal equivalent of the Chuckle Brothers. We can only hope that at some point in the very near future, Operation Branchform starts to come up with some answers.
?it would take a stone heart not to laugh! They took Salesforce CRM for a political party?! Jeezo, obviously some wide boy consultant saw them coming and said “let me sell you a bridge”.
Proof, if needed, that the SNP has as much knowledge of technology as it does of biology.
The cost is even more bizarre/worring when you know that pretty much all of the data from things like VoterID/canvassing is input not by paid staff, but by unpaid party volunteers.
The computer really says No!
Now if I were at the SNP top table I would read wings several times every day and I would post explanations and justification back here when accusations are raised.
They need to answer questions like this especially after failing to file accounts and have officials arrested.
All quite as usual.
Can Tom Gordon have actually said something relevant?
Wonder who is the hand that feeds?
Assuming they have actual receipts of purchase for service (a rather questionable assumption), the most obvious explanation would be good ol’ fashioned Kick-back fraud.
Check the lavender Ceausescus personal accounts for unexplained revenue streams.
It’s….it’s almost as if some of this money was being diverted.
You may have found the loom that did all that weaving into the accounts.
Oh dear- I do hope it’s not been trousered or those poor Branchform officers will be feeling like they’re playing Whack-a-Mole
Those are helluva big numbers for computer equipment. As for Branchform, it’s just a ruse. There’s nothing happening at all there.
more shade from the enemies of independence; the money was well spent as is shown here –
obviously. As long as it runs javascript, it’s all you need.
It would be really interesting to see the invoices behind the IT expenditure totals. I wonder if the IT function is contracted out to a “consultancy” company as I guess might easily be the case for a number of other services provided to the party.
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Effijy says:
16 October, 2023 at 1:32 pm
The computer really says No!
Now if I were at the SNP top table I would read wings several times every day and I would post explanations and justification back here when accusations are raised.
They need to answer questions like this especially after failing to file accounts and have officials arrested.
____
Don’t worry Effijy, the rebuttal unit is coming!
said it before and i’ll repeat it now.
The Catalan movements have millions in the bank yet have huge protests and expense
The SNP with an average of 75000 members should be rolling in it
At least they have cut back on the jumbo backdrop screen for this conference.
Song of the day should be Computers Don’t Blunder by The Exploited.
So large chunks of this IT money was spent during the period the 666K of ring fenced indyref2 fighting fund money was snaffled and spent, and now we find out it was spent not just on something it should not have been, but on something that does not even exist. FFS. It just gets worse and worse…
If you opened a fresh can of Hákarl, and served it with a Durian fruit, on the gusset of an old Tramps Y’s, it would still smell better that the SNP’s finances.
Aye, that’s it. Blame it on the IT. That’s a good un. Poor IT.
Nuffing to do with the duff and unpopular policie or waste of space MPs and MSPs.
Ah Humza you’ll just need to put the fundraiser hat round again. IT for Independence. Now that’s the ticket. Another £600k perhaps?
Oh dearie me.
I’m sure the SNP must own a massive laundromat
Looks like another one of those “ring-fenced” fundraisers could well be in the offing.
Semper Vigilo.
All the Twitler Youth employees and hangers-on had to have the newest iPhone and iBook as soon as they became available? Every 6 months or so? Because otherwise they would’ve been “discriminated against”?
Still, that’s a hell of a lot of money for hardware, and software licencing, for such a relatively small outfit as the SNP.
So what other monies and transactions are hidden under the all-encompassing, opaque, seemingly legitimate “IT costs”?
#writtenfrommy2018£500laptopwhichworksallright
I wonder if she had to replace that Iron and if so, on who’s account?
Maybe Operation Branchform will come up with a Independence plan as well, finger crossed.
I’m still waiting for Mike Russell to give the general public the updates he promised on the SNP membership figures.
I donated to the Indy fund does this mean I’ve got a state in the Motor-home, if so ill take my two weeks in July 2024. Who do I contact is it SNP-HQ or is it Operation Branchform.
Ooooops
Elsie mcselfie turns up to spoil the party in aberdeen
She has no shame
Wild speculation. Is there any chance the SNP was scammed and to preserve the Dear Leader’s reputation there was some form of adjustment? Perhaps some business intelligence service, along the lines of Cambridge Analytics that came with a hefty price tag that didn’t actually deliver anything.
I wonder how much extra computer assistance of different natures were sought by Sturgeon et al between 2018 and 2020? I can imagine that certain types of specialist work could and would command high payment
WingsOverFrance@1:45
Easily explained if the burners were all iphones and they were tied into a contract with orange or some such.
My own bluescreenings (, incompetence) and need to resort to an old mac to (try to) get access to the latest bill/ heart attack had me stumbling across a delightful wee gem that could yet help the branchform squad get the 1980s stuff* they took from SNP HQ running as fast as anything considered contemporary at this end:
link to ventoy.net
*outdated software & processor speeds being best excuse I can think of for the explanation and reporting delays so far 🙂
Sad, very sad. How on earth did this once great party get into such an absolute mess? Well, look no further than the current and recent previous SNP leadership. As Humza himself stated: “the buck stops….”. Still, the rot set in long before he took the reigns. The poor sod is just not the one to fix it. BTW, where’s Nicola and hubby hiding out these days?
Luigi @ 15.42
Ms Sturgeon is in plain (works on so many levels) sight this very afternoon. At the SNP mini conference.
Whether she drove herself there, I do not know. Where she has secreted Mr Murrell I am not sure even she recalls.
The got a deal on the software the Post Office used to put the Post Masters in prison.
Bought from Totter Independence Traders. TIT for Short.
The farmyard midden that is the SNP.
Hell mend them…
SNP OUT!
Standing ovation for St Nic!
Huzzah…nothing to see here, move along!
Mind how we used to think it was only the Tories that look at the electorate and laughs. In fact I would suggest there’s actually more fightback and critique in the Tory membership against its leaders than in the SNP
No Exit Chum!
link to ukdefencejournal.org.uk
To paraphrase J.P Sartre, «hell is having a neighbor with your best interests at heart».
The Nato supporters in the National party must be steeped in this defence of the realm Bondish fantasy. From the off there must have been more than a touch of the «for England, James» about their demeanour.
Like an account of the «Great Reset» Covid Scam, that of the subversion of Scotland’s National movement is a story that cries out to be written but will, for a variety of sensitivity reasons, never see the light of day this side of the Great Revolt.
In the meantime the contents of that pipe unwholesomely back up.
Get vour computer software and sports socks here. Two for a million!
Diddled perhaps?
Ooooh, lovely war..
Shell shares rocket.
and this is just wee war, for the moment.
While internal IT, data and communications would be run by a separate committee, “electoral IT should be the responsibility of the new Campaigns Committee and one of its priorities should be to oversee the renewal of the electoral IT systems, which are out of date.”
It’s their money if they want to splash out a million on a new system it’s up to them is it not?
Out of date systems can function perfectly well.
Some thoughts I had when I when I read the above was
1. Is there something on the old system that needs to be totally wiped?
2. Does the new guy not know how to operate the old system.
3. Is embezzlement involved and should we care?
I do remember Stu’s article and thinking they had spent a lot of money on software & office equipment.
Maybe Branchform will look into that.
I have no idea what a political parties’ electoral IT system needs to do.
@Ruby.
My other half commissioned an all singing and dancing computer programme system for almost 200,000 staff. Installed in six months and able to be altered as required annually. Not even quarter of a million.
Somebody is at it.
And you thought that the £squillions that Dido Harding pilfered with a failed COVID tracking system were a winning argument against a corrupt UK Government?
I’ve been in ICT all my life and I could have made £$€billions bamboozling 99% of you with buzzwords and jargon, and selling vapourware, but I’ve not done that because I’m a human with a conscience and not a narcissistic sopiopath.
The wider you wade and the deeper you dive, the bigger the Sewage Narcissistic Party appears.
To think that I would have given my life to help these disgusting, abhorrent frauds is far more revolting and infuriating than anything I’ve experienced in my life.
Most of our ‘too big to fail and jail’, ‘small enough to bail’ banks have been duct taping their primary functions for decades (sales depts will be different).
I suggest the Scottish National Party* consult one of the myriad affiliate groups of a similar size their elected members selectively and indulgently fund offer them a little advice on how to go about these things.
After all, they seem to manage, and their elite tier are never to be found seeking soup under a bridge in Glasgow.
I can see a consultation coming ‘Best sustainable practice in lifestyle grifting’
Keynote speaker on it’s launch: councillor campbell
*The first two words are silent
@Ruby 5.27
“Should we care?”
Yes, Ruby, we should. This poisons the public discourse, increases distrust in politicians.
At the very least, it will be used to tar all indy parties with the same brush, which is bad for us.
But it will tar all political causes with it; it puts decent people off getting involved in politics, it leaves it to the “political class”. All those fresh-faced boys and girls who join political parties at university and never do anything real with their lives – do you realise that Humza is the first SNP leader not to have had a “proper” job? They have no sense of proportion, and politics is a game to them – one they can’t lose, because they don’t care about issues.
So everyone should care if it is so easy for two or three people to take over a political party and corrupt it so thoroughly, make Yessers – the most optimistic people in Scotland just a couple of years ago – feel hopeless and powerless.
It’s bad for our cause, but it’s just bad for society in general.
IMHO 🙂
Channeling my inner Hall and Oates…
Ach, at least the SNP’s IT shizzle is consistent with a Party that is out of touch and out of time, though I won’t be out of my head when they’re not around…
How many bill posters or the new led screens with indy pros could have been bought or rented for £2 000,000? Loads Im guessing…and would have been effective in getting the message across….Tbh I have not seen a bill board for many years and never had a leaflet either . The kid on starts with calling the boss a CEO…rubbish…he is nothing like a CEO…more an office manager at best.
At turabdin
Shell shares rocket etc
Actually went up 1.2% today
Hardly rocketing
Shares possibly in your pension fund
I know what they are going to do with their new updated electoral IT system.
They are going to run an online Independence referendum. 🙂
Still time for it to happen on Thursday!
Is this another Rangers debacle have the snp troughers been taking lessons from Rangers re HMRC and their liabilities , does it make any difference if it is a Scottish tax office, will the Scottish Nonce Party be safe and unchallenged because they are the SG , has Mullholland been approached for advice, do you need receipts and invoices for that expenditure, were the receipts left by mistake in some motor home , does Michelle Moan own a IT company that she operates from her luxury yacht, are snp members as thick as shit believing all this pish
Does NikNacky Noo remember where this money went
Paper ballots don’t go out of fashion,
Can be counted and assessed according to the amount of people living and paying council tax and bin collection, in any local voting county district,
Do not need digital face recognition or ID credit cards other than showing driving licence or passport.
This system always worked when the local Councils counted the votes locally in stead of private franchise contracts going out-with Scotland, better where you, ” the people ” get to oversee and confirm or not a valid vote.
Back to local common sense in elections,
And it certainly wouldn’t cost the amount of dodgy account finances above.
Keep it simple keep it legal,
The SG signed off on this IT system
link to en.m.wikipedia.org
It’s a total basket case
Someone’s embezzling the cash – in my opinion! It’ll be in an attache case in a bank in Switzerland. With Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon’s fingerprints on it.
And the names Angus Robertson and Jennifer Dempsie – by the spey, embezzlement IT services.
I hope the Manchester Police open a full investigation.
Nicola Sturgeon’s statsi police force want to turn this into Scotland’s longest ever cold case. It appears that way doesn’t it? I have less faith in the police with every passing day.
Humza’s biggest mistake. Choosing honest Manchester auditors out of SNP jurisdiction.
Keep the drip drip stench of corruption flowing. I want to know every detail. And I want to see people go to prison over the theft of my Independence goodwill.
Where is operation branchform?
It’s time for vigilante justice. That’s the way it’s going.
Wings over Scotland will reveal the truth as ever. And then the police will finally act embarrassed into doing so.
As a SNP Organiser and Election Agent I was using the SNP’s election software, Activate, up to the point I left in 2021. The only update to the system in the latter years was that it was meant to run on mobiles so that Activists didn’t have to take paper printouts out with them but I don’t think that upgrade ever worked satisfactorily. It required a fair bit of manual intervention as it was updated from the electoral role regularly and there were frequent glitches if the data supplied from the Joint Board came in a different format. This may be where funds are required as a lot of the people with experience of running have left and they maybe need to have a more watertight system.
Rev you seem to be the only one looking under these rocks.
Great work.
Thank goodness for Rev Stu shining a light on all of this. How people can fall at the feet of Sturgeon like they were doing in Aberdeen today I will never understand. She and Murrell should be answering a lot of questions from the party.
The SNP are bloody lucky that they aren’t a company as HMRC would have undoubtedly investigated those highly suspicious figures for IT spending many years ago.
The word ‘malfeasance’ popped into my head, for some reason.
wouldnt hold my breath for branchform tbh. However, its clear that the SNP higherarchy have deliberately tried to sabotage independence by making the SNP as incompetent and corrupt as possible.
DML says:
16 October, 2023 at 10:31 pm
Thank goodness for Rev Stu shining a light on all of this.
100% !!!!
How about we Switch The SNP off and switch it aback on again?
SNP accounts also have included some really dubious assets in software development..worth £000s in previous years..and thats an accounting trick to avoid running at deficits..just pathetic. on every count.
If i could i would sent a copy of this too the Branchform Plod Unaccountable money again fae the books Looks like Corruption Fraud n Embezzlers are no far aff the mark Elsie has opened a bank account for her/his ??? book cash so it wull’nae get used for a “proceed of crime”
Sorry folks,
But I think waiting for Branchform to give results is like waiting for the SNP to actually deliver independence.
When I was a SNP member I received a round robin with raffle tickets a request for a donation towards fighting an independence election and my membership renewal, I paid by Direct debit so I paid £20 raffle tickets and £20 independence fighting fund. No receipt. Some time after sending away the money sent an email asking how much was the fighting fund standing at…..no reply
Must’ve missed this.
link to youtube.com