Humza Yousaf overruled officials in order to give £250,000 to a Gaza aid appeal as members of his family were stranded.
Government officials recommended a £100,000 to £200,000 donation to Unicef, the United Nations agency to help support water programmes in Gaza.
However, Yousaf announced that £250,000 of taxpayers’ money should be given to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) – which has been condemned over claims it has links to Hamas.
He told officials that: “We should just announce an extra £250k to them”.
The donation was publicly confirmed the same day that Yousaf met a delegation of senior UNRWA officials in Edinburgh on November 2, the Telegraph reports.
A day later, on November 3, his mother-in-law and father-in-law left Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
The First Minister has rejected allegations that the donation was linked with the release of his family.
A spokesman said: “UNRWA had no role in the situation regarding the First Minister’s extended family, and any suggestion of a conflict of interest in this matter would be completely untrue.”
Yousaf’s “meddling” in the allocation of aid has been slammed as a conflict of interest, as he faces questions over whether his actions breached the ministerial code.
A report is said to have been made to the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terror hotline.
Stephen Kerr, a Conservative MSP who sits on Scotland’s standards, procedures and public appointments committee, said: “The First Minister has some serious explaining to do, starting with why he overrode officials to take money away from the vital Unicef water programme and assign it to UNRWA.
“It looks as if the money was not budgeted and that the First Minister was prepared to bend the rules and not follow procedure.
“Humza Yousaf has a clear conflict of interest in the awarding of aid to Gaza.
“Clearly, the fact that so many members of his family are either living in Gaza or are involved with Palestinian organisations raises significant questions about what his motivation is for using taxpayers’ money in the area.”
His in-laws flew to Gaza last October to visit relatives but became stranded after the war broke out.
The Scottish Ministerial Code states that ministers “must ensure that no conflict arises, or could reasonably be perceived to arise, between their public duties and their private interests, financial or otherwise”.
Kerr added that the First Minister “may very well have broken the code by failing to recuse himself when he has family connections to Gaza and Palestinian organisations here in Scotland”.
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, echoed Kerr’s concerns as he said Yousaf had “questions to answer” over why he “went against official advice and chose to give public money to UNRWA rather than Unicef”.
A spokesman for the First Minister said: “The record shows the First Minister’s actions were consistent with his obligations towards openness and honesty in the Scottish Ministerial Code.
“The decision not to restrict funding to water supplies was based on advice from officials, following discussions with UNRWA, Unicef and the British Red Cross, who all stressed the importance of flexibility in providing humanitarian support according to changing needs on the ground.:
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/snp-humza-yousaf-gaza-appeal-conflict-of-interest-taxpayers-money