Concerns have been raised about the agency

Business development quango Scottish Enterprise has denied allegations of financial mismanagement of a training programme.

The deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Annabel Goldie, claimed that the agency's Premier Adviser Scheme was out of control financially.

Ms Goldie also alleged that ex-employees were being granted consultancy contracts on favoured terms.

The concerns are outlined in a letter to First Minister Jack McConnell.

Business advisers

A Scottish Enterprise spokesman said Ms Goldie had yet to approach it with the allegations.

He said: "The Premier Adviser Scheme is a high quality internal training programme which aims to ensure that our business advisers deliver a consistent and high standard of advice to business customers.

"Around 590 network staff have undertaken the programme which is formally accredited and meets national standards.

"We take allegations of this kind very seriously, but cannot comment on the points raised by Ms Goldie as she has not sent us the letter.

"We would therefore invite her to pass to us a copy of the letter which contains these allegations in order that we can investigate them."

We take allegations of this kind very seriously, but cannot comment on the points raised by Ms Goldie as she has not sent us the letter Scottish Enterprise spokesman

He added that the scheme has already won a number of UK awards.

In March the then Enterprise Minister Iain Gray asked Scotland's auditor general to investigate the use of consultancies by Scottish Enterprise.

The move followed a BBC Scotland investigation and press reports about the agency's financial management and use of European funds.

There were allegations that the agency had spent millions of pounds on hiring private consultants, had blundered in applying for European funds and was running into trouble on major projects.

Scottish Enterprise Chief Executive Robert Crawford denied all the allegations.