Water chiefs at the centre of a four-day health scare have been criticised after it emerged that they could make up to £30,000 in bonuses.

Scottish Water confirmed on Thursday that its executive directors are eligible for performance related payments of up to 20% of their salaries.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) said that it would be "outrageous" if the payments were made after a health scare earlier this week forced 140,000 people to boil tap water before use.

The advice followed the discovery of the parasite cryptosporidium at the Mugdock reservoir in Milngavie, East Dunbartonshire.

Bruce Crawford: "Outrageous in the extreme"

A spokeswoman for Scottish Water said the bonuses were due to be paid at the end of the financial year in March 2003.

Scottish Water's chief executive, Jon Hargreaves, who currently earns £150,000 a year, stands to receive the biggest payout of £30,000.

Other executive directors could earn an extra £18,000 to £22,000.

Half of the bonus is tied to the company's overall business performance, while a further 35% depends on whether Scottish Water meets targets on customer satisfaction, call handling and the number of written complaints.

A further 15% is related to the director's personal performance.

Remuneration advisers

A spokeswoman for Scottish Water said: "The salaries of executive directors is between £90,000 and £110,000 and are set following a benchmarking process.

"This is done in consultation with external remuneration advisers, who benchmark Scottish Water directors salaries against organisations of similar size and complexity."

But the suggestion that directors could be paid bonuses after the recent health scare brought strong criticism from the SNP.

The party's environment spokesman Bruce Crawford said: "It would be outrageous in the extreme, in light of the current water bug crisis, if one single penny of bonus is paid to any director of Scottish Water."