The Scottish government has spent £203million since 2016 on external consultants for administering subsidies to farmers, The Times has reported.
More than £20million every year has been spent on the private firms, although the SNP say the payments are for IT services rather than consultancy.
Reacting to the news, Jonnie Hall, director of policy at the National Farmers Union Scotland, told The Times: “It’s a staggering amount of money and our members - farmers and crofters across Scotland - will be gobsmacked by such amounts of money going into consultants’ fees to deliver agricultural support payments."
The spending revelation comes after IT issues resulted in thousands of payments to farmers being delayed. The IT failures were highlighted in a highly critical report from financial watchdog Audit Scotland in 2017.
Mr Hall added: “The impression that we have about that IT system has been that it was very much a flawed system from day one,” Hall added. “It has recovered, it has got back on track, but if we’re still paying significant amounts of money to keep it ticking over then that has got to be a concern for all of us.”
However, rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon, said the payments were not for consultancy but for IT services, to "deliver ongoing operational delivery, maintenance, modernisation, cybersecurity and development to a range of areas, including vital farming support payments, NatureScot, forestry, marine, estates management, plant health and livestock inspections".
She added, The Times reports: “Expenditure has reduced in recent years, and we have seen consistent improvement in agriculture support payment performance and lower costs as a result of these investments - meaning money is reaching farmers and crofters more quickly.
“All contracts are subject to Scottish government procurement procedures to ensure value for money.”