THE former chief executive of Scotland’s largest jobs quango received more than £100,000 of taxpayers’ cash while on suspension before being sacked, it has emerged.

Calum Graham collected the salary and pension benefits during an eleven-month absence from Jobs and Business Glasgow (JBG), a subsidiary of Glasgow City Council.

The figures are revealed in the small print of the council’s unaudited accounts for 2016/17.

Mr Graham, 57, was placed on a precautionary suspension on 28 January 2016 after it emerged JBG had mishandled almost £5m of European funds.

Mary-Theresa Smith, head of employability, Nancy Burns, head of youth and learning, and Rob Pryce, head of enterprise, business and the economy, were also suspended at the time.

The council’s Internal Audit unit later reported six EU grants claimed by JBG included “significant amounts of ineligible expenditure” and £4.8m had to be repaid.

Auditors said the “the levels of non-compliance.. resulted in a significant adverse financial and reputational impact on the Council Group” and details were passed to the police.

The quango was also forced to shed a third of its staff, 150 people.

Ms Smith, Ms Burns and Mr Pryce left JBG in May last year, but Mr Graham did not.

A footnote buried on page 126 of the new council accounts has now revealed Mr Graham stayed on for almost a year, before he “left his post on 23 December 2016”.

His departure was never publicised by the council.

A council insider confirmed he had been dismissed and there could now be an employment tribunal.

JBG is now being run by interim chief executive Martin Booth.

The accounts show that Mr Graham received around £20,000 in salary and pension benefits pro rata for February and March 2016.

Between April 2016 and his departure, he received a further £80,398 in salary, £2970 in allowances and £13,168 in pension contributions.

Susan Aitken, the new SNP leader of the council, was a JBG board member during Mr Graham’s suspension and at the time of his exit.

Scottish Conservative Glasgow MSP Annie Wells said: “This is yet another instance of taxpayer’s money being thrown away. It’s utterly unacceptable for someone to accumulate this much money while on suspension, only to be removed anyway.

“It’s the sort of thing that would never be tolerated in the private sector.

“These instances make people lose faith in quango organisations like this.”

Mr Graham had been the quango’s chief executive since its formation in 2011, when it was known as the Glasgow Regeneration Agency before a relaunch in 2013.

JBG helps the unemployed retrain and find work, and last year supported 3,500 people into work, 7500 into training, and assisted the development of over 500 business start-ups.

At the time Mr Gragam and his former colleagues were suspended, the council stressed there was “no evidence of personal gain” in the misuse of EU money.

Last August, the Scottish Government ordered a review of 24 projects involving £7.8m of EU grants to JBG and its predecessor local regeneration agencies since 2007.

The council accounts warn: “Any further areas of non-compliance identified would result in potential additional liabilities for Jobs and Business Glasgow”.

Mr Graham could not be contacted for comment.

A council spokesman said: “Mr Graham was suspended on a precautionary basis during an investigation. He is no longer employed by Jobs and Business Glasgow.”