Europe's largest social landlord is coming under pressure over how it handled the resignation of a board member being investigated for housing benefit fraud.

Politicians have accused Glasgow Housing Association of being "cloaked in secrecy and spin" after it emerged other board members were told only that John McVicar had resigned for "personal reasons", while campaigners have called for the resignation of the organisation's chairwoman over the matter.

Mr McVicar, a tenant board member of GHA, had admitted to two fellow board members and an official of the body that he had failed to declare a private pension while claiming benefit. He later admitted to have been "diddling" for 14 years and that the money was required for his four looked-after grandchildren.

Although he quit in November, several board members are understood to have been unaware of his reasons until late December.

The Scottish Housing Regulator has also received a complaint about how the matter was handled but although it has said it will respond to the complainant it believes it is an internal GHA matter. GHA is also maintaining its stance that the matter is personal.

The "secretive" accusations have been repeatedly made by politicians, housing campaigners, tenants and homeowners, and come on the back of campaigns to make the landlord open to more public scrutiny by making it subject to Freedom of Information legislation.

Glasgow MSP Robert Brown has repeatedly called on the GHA to be FOI compliant, bringing it in line with other public bodies such as councils, police forces and hospitals, with the Scottish Information Commissioner, Kevin Dunion, claiming there is "a strong argument" to extend FOI in situations such as the transfer of housing to housing associations.

David McDonald, the Glasgow SNP group spokesman on housing, said that as the organisation was in receipt of hundreds of millions of pounds of public money it had to be more open on its governance.

He said: "John McVicar's resignation from the GHA board on so-called personal grounds and his subsequent expose for housing benefit fraud bring to question why the board were not told the truth in the first place.

"This is a very serious matter and should have been fully declared to the GHA board, not cloaked in secrecy and spin. I will be writing to the GHA chair requesting clarification about what she knew, who advised her and why she withheld vital information from her board colleagues."

A GHA spokeswoman said: "Mr McVicar tendered his resignation following an informal meeting with GHA chair Sandra Forsythe and two members of GHA staff to discuss the rules of governance relating to board membership."