MSPs slate transport chief's £61k pay-off

A £61,000 payment to a departing public sector chief was slammed by MSPs yesterday. Holyrood's public audit committee found there was no reason to "justify" the payment to former Transport Scotland chief executive Dr Malcolm Reed.

He left the organisation in February last year and received a payment in lieu of notice of 61,000, the equivalent to six months' salary. His notice period was three months.

Committee convener Hugh Henry said: "The committee has not received any good or robust reason to justify why the extra payment was made.

"At a time when financial rigour is required, the committee questioned the need to make this payment, especially when one year later no structural change involving the chief executive had been made.

"Moreover, it is concerned that the Scottish Government did not provide relevant information to the auditor on which it later sought to rely, casting doubt on the decision-making process."

Transport Scotland had been embroiled in a row at the time when its then director of finance, Guy Houston, resigned after the publication of an auditor's report, which showed he took part in meetings about the extension of First ScotRail's contract to run trains in Scotland.

Mr Houston was a First Group shareholder, although this was declared in Transport Scotland's annual report.