Sunday, March 01, 2009
War of the bonuses
Whilst controversy continues to rage over ex-Royal Bank of Scotland chief Sir Fred Goodwin and his "unacceptable" £16m pension, a further drama is being played out regarding the Labour Government's double standards on bonuses.
Yesterday's Independent reports that Ministers have been accused of double standards after approving bonuses to thousands of senior civil servants in their own departments, despite announcing new rules designed to crack down on the generous pay deals for council executives:
John Healey, the Local Government minister, said that he wanted to cut the pay and bonuses given to local authority bosses by forcing them to publish details of their pay deals. The Government also declared victory after bonuses to executives at the failed bank RBS were reduced.
But Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, said yesterday that the Government was in "no position to preach" to councils over pay and bonuses as senior civil servants in its own departments will be sharing a payout of £26m this year.
Sir Gus O'Donnell, the head of the Civil Service, revealed last week that departmental permanent secretaries were waiving their bonuses in an attempt to send "a signal to the public that we understand their concerns in these difficult times". But the agreement to forgo annual bonuses only covers around a dozen mandarins, leaving some 4,000 senior civil servants in line for a payout in September. Last year, senior civil servants received a total of £24.7m in bonuses – an average of £6,175 each.
I do not want to get into a debate as to whether the civil servants concerned or local authority chief executives are worth their bonuses, but what this illustrates better then anything I can write is how Government Ministers who take popularist stances, in an effort to distract from their wider failures, can find their own words coming back to bite them.
Yesterday's Independent reports that Ministers have been accused of double standards after approving bonuses to thousands of senior civil servants in their own departments, despite announcing new rules designed to crack down on the generous pay deals for council executives:
John Healey, the Local Government minister, said that he wanted to cut the pay and bonuses given to local authority bosses by forcing them to publish details of their pay deals. The Government also declared victory after bonuses to executives at the failed bank RBS were reduced.
But Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, said yesterday that the Government was in "no position to preach" to councils over pay and bonuses as senior civil servants in its own departments will be sharing a payout of £26m this year.
Sir Gus O'Donnell, the head of the Civil Service, revealed last week that departmental permanent secretaries were waiving their bonuses in an attempt to send "a signal to the public that we understand their concerns in these difficult times". But the agreement to forgo annual bonuses only covers around a dozen mandarins, leaving some 4,000 senior civil servants in line for a payout in September. Last year, senior civil servants received a total of £24.7m in bonuses – an average of £6,175 each.
I do not want to get into a debate as to whether the civil servants concerned or local authority chief executives are worth their bonuses, but what this illustrates better then anything I can write is how Government Ministers who take popularist stances, in an effort to distract from their wider failures, can find their own words coming back to bite them.
