Under the new bill, concerns were raised that the Commission would have limited powers to scrutinise the Scottish Government over the drafting and preparation of economic forecasts.
Fears were also raised that the Commission’s main role will be to solely “rubber stamp” SNP decisions on the economy.
At today’s SNP-led finance committee, Gavin Brown MSP lodged amendments challenging the transparency of the new body.
However, the amendments were voted down by all Nationalist members - leading to fears that the Scottish Government will effectively become judge and jury of its own economic forecasting and performance.
Recently, the SNP government’s economic forecasting was brought into question with economists probing the accuracy of estimates of growth in the construction sector and the GDP overall.
And according to the latest official figures, Scotland’s economy grew by just 0.1 per cent in the third quarter of last year – well below the growth rate of the UK overall in this period.
Scottish Conservative finance spokesman Gavin Brown said:
“Today is a poor day for the Parliament, a disastrous day for the finance committee and bad news for the scrutiny of Scotland’s finances.
“Several committee members reversed their position from an agreed finance committee report just a few weeks ago.
“Last month they agreed that the Scottish OBR, known as the Scottish Fiscal Commission, should produce the official tax forecasts and report on the long term sustainability of the public finances. Today, they rejected amendments designed to achieve those ends. The stark contrast between what the finance committee agreed in its report and what certain members argued today is staggering.
“We are left with a bill that creates an advisory body instead of an independent scrutiny body.”