Humza Yousaf has been warned he will face a probe into a series of donations made by the Scottish Government to a Gaza aid agency.
The former Scottish First Minister, who quit after losing the support of coalition partners from the Green Party, appears to have authorised £250,000 to the United Nations Relif & Works Agency.
Taxpayers’ cash was handed over while Yousaf’s family were trapped in the Strip during Israel’s retaliatory attack following last October’s onslaught by Hamas.
Officials had recommended a £100,000 to £200,000 donation to Unicef in a bid to fund water programmes.
Yousaf allegedly overruled the advice and gave a pot of cash to the biggest international aid agency operating in Gaza.
The £250,000 donation came from the International Development Fund, The Telegraph has claimed.
The pot had been ring-fenced for projects in Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Pakistan.
A review of the processes involved in the response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is now underway, the Scottish Government has confirmed.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The review, which will focus on evolving future Scottish Government humanitarian funding mechanisms and processes, will be announced in due course.”
The donation of £250,000 was announced publicly on November 2 as Yousaf met a delegation of UNRWA officials in Edinburgh.
It was made at a time when Yousaf’s in-laws were being given safe passage out of Gaza via the Rafah crossing.
Yousaf, who resigned as First Minister in April, denied the donation was connected to the release of his in-laws.
A spokesman said at the time: “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.”
However, it is now being alleged that Yousaf could have breached the ministerial code or potentially acted with a conflict of interest.
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”.
The UK and the US were also among a number of countries who suspended funding to the UNRWA after 12 of its workers were sacked following accusations by Israel that they participated in the October 7 attacks.
An inquiry into such claims has since been launched by the UN.
The Foreign Office said the UK was “appalled” by the claims that UNRWA staff were involved in a “heinous act of terrorism”.
Yousaf’s stint as First Minister has been partially blamed for the SNP’s poor performance in last week’s general election.
The SNP is no longer the largest party in Scotland, with Labour reclaiming the crown as the nationalist’s seat total dropped from 48 to nine.
Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation and subsequent uncovering of the SNP’s financing scandal also negatively impacted its support.
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/humza-yousaf-gaza-donations-probe