FUNDING chiefs have launched an outspoken attack on the running of the powerful board that controls further education in Scotland's biggest city.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC), which distributes millions of pounds of public money to the sector, said the Glasgow Colleges Regional Board was "far from ready".

The board should have been in a position to take over the administration of the £80 million total funding for Glasgow's three colleges later this year.

However, the SFC do not believe the board, under the control of chairman Henry McLeish, the former First Minister, has made sufficient progress and wants to parachute its own official into the organisation.

An SFC spokesman said: "The SFC view is that the Glasgow Colleges' Regional Board has made insufficient progress towards discharging its role of funding Glasgow's colleges. This includes its failure to appoint a chief officer to the board.

"The SFC's chief executive has therefore written to the chair of the board setting out his expectations of progress, including the secondment of Martin Fairbairn, a senior SFC director, as interim chief officer to the Board and for a review of progress led by a senior independent member of the board.

"The board is far from ready to be in a position to fund the city's colleges, one of its core functions and SFC naturally needs assurance on certain key governance criteria for this to happen."

A board spokesman hit back arguing that significant progress had been made and raising concerns about the actions of the SFC.

He said: "The inferences made by the SFC are inaccurate and distorted and bear no relationship to what the board has achieved.

"We are at a loss as to why the SFC has gone public with this when the board has not had a chance to look at this in detail and issue a detailed rebuttal."

The row comes as the board is about to discuss a paper which presents SFC with the option of making it completely independent and providing it with more funds.

The paper states: "The chair will argue that the unique nature of regionalisation in Glasgow means that a new independent board and infrastructure has to be created, but it does not follow that resources should be taken from the teaching budgets of any of the colleges.

"This is not happening in any other region so it makes little sense for this to happen in a city that needs more frontline investment not less.

"The colleges have real expertise, experience and skills that we can call on. And at the same time we need to protect the independence of the Glasgow's colleges and the Glasgow Regional Colleges Board and develop new protocols with the SFC.

"The remarkable achievements of the Board in such a short period of time allows us now to move forward on number of education and learning fronts."

The turmoil comes after a major restructuring of further education colleges along regional lines across Scotland driven by former Education Secretary Michael Russell.

In Glasgow, a number of colleges were merged to form the much larger City of Glasgow College, Glasgow Clyde College and Glasgow Kelvin College.

Under the structure, the principals are in charge of each college, but the new regional board administers funds and sets the strategic direction of the sector.

Meanwhile, it emerged that Moray College's principal has been sacked after being in his post for just a matter of months.

The board of management at the institution said Frank Hughes had been removed from his position with immediate effect.

In a statement, college chiefs refused to give details about why he had been dismissed, but stressed he had not been involved in any misconduct or improper behaviour. Mr Hughes took up the post last August.