ANDREW Flanagan, the beleaguered chair of the Scottish Police Authority is “unfit for office” a former board member has told MSPs.

Moi Ali, who resigned in February, told a Holyrood committee that the chief of the body responsible for overseeing Police Scotland and their billion-pound budget was “actually not fit to continue on any public board” because of his decision to hold most of the SPA’s meetings behind closed doors.

Her comments came at the latest meeting of the Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee who have been studiously following up a critical report on the SPA by the Auditor General.

Ali claimed Flanagan had squeezed her out of the organisation, punishing her for publicly raising concerns about the SPA’s transparency.

After that Flanagan wrote to Ali barring her from taking part in committee meetings.

People with disagreements “would normally consider resigning,” Flanagan said in his letter.

He added that it was not “fair to you or to your fellow board members for you to participate in the committees”.

Asked if this had amounted to bullying, Ali told MSPs: “Yes, I believe that it did … To write a letter of that nature, it’s hard to find another word to describe what it amounts to.”

Asked if she thought Flanagan was fit to continue as chair, Ali said: “I am afraid I don’t. I think he is actually not fit to continue on any public board because he clearly does not observe public-sector values.”

She also said previous chairman Vic Emery had referred to her as a “one-trick diversity pony”.

Responding to Ali’s comments, Flanagan, who was not present at the committee, said: “I reject the suggestion that I in any way bullied Moi Ali.

“Moi’s reasons for resigning are well documented and publicly available, and make no reference to this assertion.”

Fellow board member George Graham came to the aid of his SPA boss, telling MSPs: “My experience of him as a chair, and I feel duty-bound to say this, is not as any kind of control freak,” he said.

The police watchdog, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMICS), announced that they would bring forward an inspection of the SPA, given the fallout over Ali’s resignation.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson, who requested the inspection to be sooner rather than later, asked Chief Inspector Derek Penman to particularly look into “openness and transparency”.

Penman, who also addressed the committee said, it was likely he would recommend the SPA scrap the private meetings.

“I wouldn’t ordinarily pre-empt my review or my recommendations, but it would be unlikely that I won’t be making a recommendation to the chair of the SPA that the board meetings and committee meetings should revert to being held in public and that board papers should be circulated in advance.”

SNP committee member Alex Neil said: “The culture of the SPA is one of secrecy and non-cooperation with people, which is not acceptable.

“Ever since this board was set up, there have been real problems. There’s clearly a lot more work needed to get the SPA in to the position it needs to be in to gain the confidence of this Parliament and the Scottish people.”

Neil added that the SPA’s treatment of Ali had done “significant damage” which had created a “PR disaster”.

After the meeting Scottish Labour’s Claire Baker called for a “drastic overhaul of how the SPA is run.”

“There is a growing lack of confidence in the chair of the SPA.”