THE SNP has leapt to the defence of a financially incompetent health board that tried to hide the cost of paying off its former boss.

The party accused Labour MSP Jenny Marra of “baseless smears” for claiming earlier this week that NHS Tayside paid former chief executive Lesley Mclay £300,000.

The board has refused to publish what it gave Ms Mclay, telling the media to submit freedom of information requests, despite the figure ultimately having to appear in its annual accounts.

The BBC reported on Wednesday her exit deal was around £90,000 including pension.

Ms Mclay left the board after going on sick leave in April, the day after she was told she could no longer continue in the role after a series of financial scandals at NHS Tayside.

Besides requiring “brokerage” loans of £33.2m from the Scottish Government over five years to avoid going bust, NHS Tayside's top management team was replaced after cash from a charity endowment fund was used to pay for projects including a new IT system.

On Monday, Ms Marra, the chair of Holyrood’s public audit committee, which had tracked the financial problems at the board, claimed Ms Mclay’s pay-off had been £300,000.

She also said the “golden handshake” was a “slap in the face” to local people.

The board denied the number and its chair John Brown has now written to Ms Marra with more details, but the number has still not been officially verified.

SNP MSP Sandra White demanded Ms Marra retract her “smears” against NHS Tayside.

Ms White, who sits on Holyrood’s Health committee, said: “Jenna Marra must now retract these utterly bogus and baseless claims after the health board has proven them to be utterly false. We are used to this sort of thing from Labour, as they continually seek to mislead when it comes to the NHS in Scotland.

“But Ms Marra’s claims aren’t just wrong and misleading, they are wildly off the mark – and it appears to be a deliberate attempt to undermine our health service.

“People have legal entitlements and the NHS simply cannot refuse to make those payments, but as Tayside has said throughout there has been no ‘pay off’” or golden goodbye as Ms Marra claimed.

“Jenny Mara must now apologise and publicly retract her baseless claims – as well as setting out on what basis she made them.”

Ms Marra said: "I am sure most people will agree that such a huge severance payment is inappropriate in this case.

"SNP politicians should explain to their constituents why they think it is acceptable for a health board that has been chronically underfunded by their own government to reward failure.

"If NHS Tayside had been honest about the extent of this pay off in the first place, the board could have gone some way to starting to rebuild trust with patients and staff. Instead, it has now been forced to release this information that should have been made public in the first place.

“I look forward to seeing Audit Scotland’s opinion on this payment when they publish their latest emergency report in September on the financial mess at NHS Tayside."

Tory MSP Bill Bowman demanded clarity about the cost of Mclay’s exit.

He said: “People in Tayside will be confused this morning with wildly conflicting reports of the payout received by Lesley Mclay.

“The convener of Holyrood’s public audit committee suggested the figure was more than three times that outlined in the media today.

“In order to restore full confidence in the process and the way in which taxpayers money is being spent, the arrangements should be verified by an independent source.

“The public - and in particular patients and staff at NHS Tayside - have the right to know exactly what has happened.”

NHS Tayside says Ms Mclay, who had been on a £125,000-a-year salary, “received what she was contractually entitled to and nothing more upon leaving the organisation."