Six executives at a Queensland Government-owned power company have been criticised for accepting bonuses while subcontractors go unpaid.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ordered the liquidation of state-owned power company Stanwell Corporation’s contractor Coal Reuse.

Coal Reuse owes over 100 creditors more than $3 million.

A report by liquidators Rodgers Reidy shows Coal Reuse was contracted in 2014 to collect and resell coal by-product at Stanwell power stations and an associated mine, despite having “insufficient funds” and “no history in the industry”.

LNP Member for Lockyer Ian Rickuss said a subsequent $223,000 worth of taxpayer-funded performance bonuses that Stanwell executives received were “a sham”.

“You now have the chief executive, the chief financial officer all getting these enormous bonuses. Yet the poor local contractor around Blackbutt and around the Southern Burnett area have been ripped off for hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he told reporters.

“This is almost a bonus for poor performance.”

In the previous financial year, eight executives received $272,000 in bonuses between them.

Stanwell has issued a statement saying the bonus payments were in line with Queensland Government guidelines.

“Payments take into account a range of factors including the overall financial and safety performance of the business and a broad range of individual targets,” the statement said.

“Payment of Coal Reuse's creditors by Stanwell would not be an appropriate use of taxpayers’ money,” the statement said.