A full year has passed since the CEO of the Scottish National Investment Bank inexplicably quit, and the £260,000-a-year job is still vacant with “no expectations” for when it will be filled. The state-owned bank was launched in 2020, with the SNP promising to throw £2 billion at it over ten years to push Scotland towards Net Zero. Its first Chief Executive, Eilidh Mactaggart, resigned after just 18 months. Neither the Bank nor the SNP initially gave an explanation. In fact, it wasn’t even publicly disclosed until 25 February…

In the meantime, the hunt for a replacement is proving more difficult than expected. Apparently no-one’s particularly interested…

A spokesperson for the bank says:

“We have retained an Executive Search agency, Spencer Stuart, for a contract of £175,000 that includes recruitment for the CEO. We have also incurred additional expenses of £5,400 for candidate testing used as part of the selection process. The contract with Spencer Stuart remains in place with no additional search fees beyond the original £175,000. There are no expectations for when the appointment will be announced and the role filled.”

So that’s billions in taxpayers’ money for a bank which currently has no permanent leader, and doesn’t know when it will find one…