Scots council under fire after agreeing £562,000 exit package for staff member
A Scots local authority agreed a £562,000 exit package to a former staff member despite jacking up council tax rates.
But North Lanarkshire Council has refused to name the person who benefited from the golden goodbye.
The town hall accounts show over £8m was paid out last year in exit deals to 133 employees.
Most of the packages fell under £40,000, but a small number were well into six figures.
One deal came to between £400,001 and £450,000 and included a £153,000 lump sum. But this was less than the £562,000 package enjoyed by an unnamed individual.
The biggest chunk of this deal was a £319,000 boost into the pension fund linked to early retirement, while another £212,000 was pension related.
A Scottish Green spokesperson said: 'Over 46% of people in North Lanarkshire are currently living in poverty. In recent years, our swimming pools, our community centres and much-loved arts and culture venues have been closed down. We've also seen cuts to essential school buses, all under the guise of saving money.
'One individual receiving an exit package of over half a million pounds should set alarm bells ringing.
'It is disgraceful that such a staggering sum of public mone y is given freely when services are being slashed and people across Lanarkshire are struggling to heat their homes or feed their kids."
Tory MSP Graham Simpson said of the decision not to name the person: 'It's important that public bodies like councils are fully transparent about how our money is being spent.
' North Lanarkshire Council publishes the salaries of its senior people and there are some big numbers there.
'It's quite possible for someone who has spent their career in local government to amass a big pension pot. It should at least be possible for the council to say what level the person was at and how long they had worked for the council, even if they don't want to name them – which they probably should.'
North Lanarkshire recently increased council tax by 10% to generate extra money for services.
The hike means a Band C charge is now £1,291 while for householders in Band D properties it has jumped to £1,452.
It comes after two councils faced criticisms over bonus payments to senior staff at firms they own.
Executives at Scottish Event Campus Ltd, owned by Glasgow council, were awarded around £122,000 in top up payments last year.
SEC Managing Director Deborah McWilliams received a £32,979 bonus as part of a £216,799 remuneration package.
Marshall Dallas, the former chief executive at Edinburgh council-owned EICC, handed a £22,343 bonus in his last year.
A spokesperson for North Lanarkshire Council said: "The council has saved more than £600,000 annually from senior management restructuring since 2018.
"The total sums quoted in the annual accounts for exit packages do not go directly to the individuals concerned on their exit from the council. In the case of the employee with the highest quoted exit package, the vast majority of the total sum is paid to the pension fund, with around 40% based on a notional calculation.
"Employees have paid into the pension scheme throughout their working lives and their entitlements are the same as any employee under the terms of the council's policies and the pensions regulations."
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