Scottish Government was forced to spend more than £1million on extra staff and overtime when administering farm subsidy payments.
The spending was confirmed by Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing in a letter to members of Holyrood’s rural economy and connectivity committee.
Mr Ewing told the committee that £780,000 had been spent employing 72 additional staff, 32 of whom will soon be dismissed, and up to £348,000 was spent on staff overtime costs.
The costs were incurred as a result of problems with a new £178million IT system to process and administer farm subsidy payments.
North-East Liberal Democrat MSP, Mike Rumbles, slammed Government for the additional staff costs and said the money would have been better spent supporting the farming sector.
He said: “The £178million programme still isn’t fixed and it looks like issues with the system will run well into next year’s payments. Meanwhile, our farm businesses, suppliers and rural communities have been forced to deal with a year of chaos and uncertainty, the responsibility of which rests firmly at the feet of this inept government.
“It comes as no surprise that the Minister acts oblivious to these issues, he has been walking around like a headless chicken all year trying to cover up the Scottish Government’s mismanagement of Cap payments.”