KATE Forbes has been accused of setting an “uncomfortable precedent” after the outgoing boss of a government-owned bank was handed six months of her salary worth £117,500 as an exit payment.

Eilidh Mactaggart quit her job as CEO of the Scottish National Investment Bank in January, citing personal reasons for her resignation.

But The Herald revealed last week that Ms Mactaggart was given half of her £235,000 annual salary in lieu of working her six months’ notice period, as per her contract, despite the bank insisting “there was no severance package”.

The Scottish Government has come under fire for how it has handled the resignation – with documents revealing ministers were told to say the incorrect date they were first informed of the development and initially failing to give detail of Ms Mactaggart’s decision.

READ MORE: Outgoing investment bank chief Eilidh Mactaggart 'paid off with six months of her salary'

Ministers were aware of Ms Mctaggart’s payoff, but declined to make it public.

Now Scottish LibDem finance spokesperson, Willie Rennie, has penned a letter to the SNP’s Finance and Economy Secretary, calling for clarity over why no minimum length of service was a requirement of a pay-off for a job Ms Mactaggart left for personal reasons, with immediate effect.

In his letter to Ms Forbes, he said that “for most Scots, if you quit a job for personal or professional reasons” , you would “not expect to receive six months’ salary”.

He added: “Indeed, SNIB board member Carolyn Jameson told the Scottish Parliament’s economy committee in March that ‘there was no severance package’.

“Assuming that these were contractual provisions and given that Ms Mactaggart was in place for less than two years, I think the public would be interested to know whether there was there a minimum length of service that Ms Mactaggart was required to perform before being eligible for this pay-off?

“How many employees within the Scottish Government and Scottish Government bodies have contractual guarantees like this in their contract?”

Mr Rennie said the fiasco “sets an uncomfortable precedent”.

He added: “The public will want to know how many other officials have been recruited with a grand fanfare and lucrative promises of payoffs if they decide to leave.

"There is a nagging sense that the Scottish Government are not being transparent with people.

“From the initial refusal to explain why Ms Mactaggart was no longer in post to Scottish Government officials and ministers giving different accounts of when they knew she was departing, this has been another example of the opaque and unaccountable SNP in action."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Staff resignations are a matter for the bank as the employer and the individuals involved.

"The former chief executive was paid in lieu of her notice period in line with the Bank’s contractual obligations.”