Cash-strapped housing corporation WSG has paid an interim manager over €500,000 for nine months work, breaking guidelines on public sector pay, news agency ANP reports.

Peter Ruigrok was given a salary of €60,000 a month when he took over at the western Brabant corporation in 2011, according to WSG’s financial report.

As an interim, under government guidelines, Ruigrok should have earned half that amount.

WSG has some 4,000 houses and a staff of 30 in a relatively small housing corporation. Ruigrok was brought in to stop the corporation going bankrupt and has been given a €118m cash injection from central funds.