PRESSURE is growing on the leaders of Edinburgh's failed tram company to forgo golden goodbyes worth hundreds of thousands of pounds paid out when the firm folded.
The directors of Tie received the severance payments totalling £406,635 when it was closed down last year.
As Edinburgh City Council confirmed the payments, Jim Eadie, Edinburgh Southern SNP MSP, said: "There must be no reward for failure".
Tie was disbanded after a long and expensive dispute with the project's main contractors, which resulted in delays and spiralling costs.
The details of the payments were published yesterday, despite the council's initial refusal to do so.
The £776 million tram line between Edinburgh Airport and St Andrew Square is due to be completed by summer 2014.
However, costs have risen from an initial £545m and the project was heavily criticised after the deadlock with contractors halted work for months.
It has now emerged project director Steven Bell received £87,000 in compensation, while chief executive Richard Jeffrey got nearly £83,000.
Alastair Richards, who was managing director of Edinburgh Trams Limited (ETL), was given £50,000. ETL, a company wholly owned by the City of Edinburgh Council, will operate the trams.
Infraco director Frank McFadden also received £50,000, while three other directors – Susan Clark, Dennis Murray and Gregor Roberts – were given more than £137,000 in compensation between them.
The itemised pay and bonus packages relate to Tie's board of directors in their final year.
The total earned by the board in the last year, including severance pay, was more than £1.3m.
Mr Eadie said: "Over £400,000 in pay-offs is a slap in the face to the people of this city. They will be aghast that after years of disruption and delay that public officials responsible for the catalogue of mistakes and incompetence will walk away with golden goodbyes. That the tram project has made real progress since Tie was scrapped is a sure sign of just how bad these directors were.
"The mismanagement of the development is a matter of public record, which will rightly be investigated once we have made more progress, but at a time when many hard working people in Edinburgh are struggling to pay their bills, it is unacceptable individuals associated with a discredited trams project should be remunerated in this way.
"The very least that should happen now is for the individuals concerned to forego these generous payments – there must be no reward for failure."
Scottish Tory Lothians MSP David McLetchie said: "We have become so used to figures escalating out of control in relation to this project that it is tempting to ignore this latest payout.
"But we must never forget it is ultimately the taxpayer who is paying for this and by any standards has had appalling value for money."
Lesley Hinds, the council's transport convener, said: "I have long called for greater transparency into the tram project and the publication of these figures is a step in the right direction – even if I don't agree with the amounts.
"This is an opportunity to draw a line under Tie's involvement and for us as councillors to ensure that, from here on in, the project is tightly managed and all spending is properly scrutinised."
Alastair Maclean, director of corporate governance, added: "The council took direct control of the tram project in 2011 at a point when it was clear a change of direction was needed."
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