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Johnston Carmichael, the long-time auditor of the Scottish National Party (SNP), resigned as auditor of the party six months ago before public reports of its resignation first emerged, with a new auditor yet to be appointed to the party.
The SNP has said that the firm informed the party in September 2022 that it would not be able to conduct the audit due in 2023 following a review of its client portfolio, but that no concerns were stated about the audit of the 2021 accounts.
The party said that efforts to appoint an alternative firm were made late last year, but many firms were experiencing capacity issues and unable to take on new clients. However, it said the search for a new auditor intensified at the beginning of this year, but while a number of firms have been contacted, no firm with the required capacity has been identified.
Reports of the firm’s resignation first emerged only last week however, days after Nicola Sturgeon’s husband was arrested amid investigations into the political party’s finances.
Sky News said that Humza Yousaf has since confirmed the firm stopped handling the SNP’s accounts “round about October”, adding he could not “comment on what was done prior to me becoming a leader of the SNP”, but said that appointing a new auditor was a priority for the party.
An SNP spokesperson told Accountancy Today: “We have informed the Electoral Commission of the difficulty in identifying replacement auditors and the National Treasurer has made the party’s Finance and Audit Committee aware.”
A spokesperson for Johnston Carmichael told Accountancy Today: “As a regulated organisation, we adhere to our obligations on client confidentiality and do not discuss client business.”
News of the resignation comes as former party chief executive and Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, was arrested and questioned by police who were investigating the party’s finances.
He has been questioned as part of a Police Scotland investigation into the whereabouts of £600,000 in party donations that had been earmarked for independence campaigning, but has since been released without charge “pending further investigation”.
