Post by Guest on Aug 30, 2011 22:08:54 GMT
Britain's highest-paid quango bosses are almost doubling their salaries with six-figure bonuses, special allowances and pension windfalls, an investigation by The Daily Telegraph has found.
They are earning as much as £700,000 a year despite the Coalition’s promise to have a “bonfire of the quangos” and freeze public sector pay.
The true scale of the pay packets received by top-earning public officials is far higher than those previously disclosed because official figures omit hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional payments.
James Wharton, a Conservative member of the Commons public accounts committee, described the sums as “staggering” and called on the Government to “bring this ridiculous situation under control”.
“Ordinary people will be outraged that bonuses are being paid at all in the public sector when the Government has so little money to spend on front-line services,” he said.
“Some of these pay packets are absolutely shocking and equal in one year what a normal person earns in a lifetime. This can’t continue.”
The Cabinet Office’s official list details the salaries of 291 bureaucrats who are paid more than £150,000 as part of a drive for transparency in government.
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, claimed that the number of top earners was down from 345 last year, but the real figure is thought to be far higher when bonuses and pensions are included.
According to the Cabinet Office list, Tony Fountain, the chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, is the country’s highest-paid quango boss with a pay package of more than £520,000, comprising a basic salary of £365,000, a second home allowance of £85,937 and pension payments of £70,810.
But the quango’s annual accounts disclose that the former BP executive also received a performance bonus of £146,000 and additional payments of almost £9,000, bringing his total pay to more than £675,000.
Details of his earnings emerged after he announced the closure of part of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria earlier this month, with the loss of about 600 jobs.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said the chief executive’s salary package was necessary to attract candidates with “sufficient experience and expertise”.
Sir David Higgins, the former chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the new boss of Network Rail, received a total of £705,000 from both jobs last year.
The Australian businessman, 56, did not appear on the Cabinet Office list because he left the ODA before it was published, despite having received £544,000 from the role last year. His payments included his £325,000 salary plus a performance bonus of £179,000 and pension payments of £40,000.
The ODA said Sir David deserved his high salary and bonus because he did an “inspirational job” as chief executive.
He also earned £161,000 in his new job as chief executive of Network Rail, a private company that receives £4 billion of taxpayers’ money each year to maintain the railways.
Sir David, who took on his new role in February, is on an annual salary of £560,000 and is in line to receive a bonus of up to £336,000 next year, which would bring his total pay to £896,000, excluding pension.
A spokesman for Network Rail said he would receive the bonus only if he met a series of “extremely tough” targets and that its bonuses were designed to “get the best” out of people.
Peter Henderson, 56, the rail company’s director of asset management, took home £672,000 last year, including a cash bonus of £91,000, benefits worth £15,000 and pension payments of £126,000.
The pay packages of executives at Network Rail were not disclosed by the Cabinet Office because it is technically a private company, despite receiving 65 per cent of its funding from the taxpayer.
Denis Hone, the new chief executive of the ODA, which is in charge of building the Olympic park, received £401,000 last year, including a bonus payment of £79,000 that was not included in the figures published by the Cabinet Office.
Howard Shiplee, the director of construction, took home £320,000, including pension contributions of £33,000 that were omitted from the official figures.
The total wage bill for the executive management board of the ODA was £2,537,000 last year. Ten staff at the quango earn more than £150,000 — meaning they are paid more than the Prime Minister, who receives £132,923.
Cynthia Bower, the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, saw her pension pot swell by £240,000 last year as well as receiving a salary of £200,000.
She has faced severe criticism over the watchdog’s failure to detect the abuse of vulnerable adults at care homes following a series of scandals.
The commission said Ms Bower was part of the NHS final salary pension scheme, which is calculated using length of service and final salary on leaving.
It emerged yesterday that, despite the Government’s promise of a “bonfire of the quangos”, only a quarter of the 192 in line to be scrapped had been abolished.
Figures released earlier this month showed that, despite the austerity drive in government, at least 4,500 public officials had been taken on since the general election in May last year.
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said last night: “The Government addressed the unacceptable waste and inefficiency in quangos. There is still more to do, but increased transparency in public bodies and the removal of waste are top priorities.”
By Heidi Blake, and Raf Sanchez
The tories...havent they done well since they got into government...They have taken money from the poorest,from the elderly,from the sick,from the handicapped,from the unemployed,from our forces,from our health service and from the hard working people of our country......but,have they not helped anyone?.....
They are earning as much as £700,000 a year despite the Coalition’s promise to have a “bonfire of the quangos” and freeze public sector pay.
The true scale of the pay packets received by top-earning public officials is far higher than those previously disclosed because official figures omit hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional payments.
James Wharton, a Conservative member of the Commons public accounts committee, described the sums as “staggering” and called on the Government to “bring this ridiculous situation under control”.
“Ordinary people will be outraged that bonuses are being paid at all in the public sector when the Government has so little money to spend on front-line services,” he said.
“Some of these pay packets are absolutely shocking and equal in one year what a normal person earns in a lifetime. This can’t continue.”
The Cabinet Office’s official list details the salaries of 291 bureaucrats who are paid more than £150,000 as part of a drive for transparency in government.
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, claimed that the number of top earners was down from 345 last year, but the real figure is thought to be far higher when bonuses and pensions are included.
According to the Cabinet Office list, Tony Fountain, the chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, is the country’s highest-paid quango boss with a pay package of more than £520,000, comprising a basic salary of £365,000, a second home allowance of £85,937 and pension payments of £70,810.
But the quango’s annual accounts disclose that the former BP executive also received a performance bonus of £146,000 and additional payments of almost £9,000, bringing his total pay to more than £675,000.
Details of his earnings emerged after he announced the closure of part of the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria earlier this month, with the loss of about 600 jobs.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said the chief executive’s salary package was necessary to attract candidates with “sufficient experience and expertise”.
Sir David Higgins, the former chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the new boss of Network Rail, received a total of £705,000 from both jobs last year.
The Australian businessman, 56, did not appear on the Cabinet Office list because he left the ODA before it was published, despite having received £544,000 from the role last year. His payments included his £325,000 salary plus a performance bonus of £179,000 and pension payments of £40,000.
The ODA said Sir David deserved his high salary and bonus because he did an “inspirational job” as chief executive.
He also earned £161,000 in his new job as chief executive of Network Rail, a private company that receives £4 billion of taxpayers’ money each year to maintain the railways.
Sir David, who took on his new role in February, is on an annual salary of £560,000 and is in line to receive a bonus of up to £336,000 next year, which would bring his total pay to £896,000, excluding pension.
A spokesman for Network Rail said he would receive the bonus only if he met a series of “extremely tough” targets and that its bonuses were designed to “get the best” out of people.
Peter Henderson, 56, the rail company’s director of asset management, took home £672,000 last year, including a cash bonus of £91,000, benefits worth £15,000 and pension payments of £126,000.
The pay packages of executives at Network Rail were not disclosed by the Cabinet Office because it is technically a private company, despite receiving 65 per cent of its funding from the taxpayer.
Denis Hone, the new chief executive of the ODA, which is in charge of building the Olympic park, received £401,000 last year, including a bonus payment of £79,000 that was not included in the figures published by the Cabinet Office.
Howard Shiplee, the director of construction, took home £320,000, including pension contributions of £33,000 that were omitted from the official figures.
The total wage bill for the executive management board of the ODA was £2,537,000 last year. Ten staff at the quango earn more than £150,000 — meaning they are paid more than the Prime Minister, who receives £132,923.
Cynthia Bower, the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, saw her pension pot swell by £240,000 last year as well as receiving a salary of £200,000.
She has faced severe criticism over the watchdog’s failure to detect the abuse of vulnerable adults at care homes following a series of scandals.
The commission said Ms Bower was part of the NHS final salary pension scheme, which is calculated using length of service and final salary on leaving.
It emerged yesterday that, despite the Government’s promise of a “bonfire of the quangos”, only a quarter of the 192 in line to be scrapped had been abolished.
Figures released earlier this month showed that, despite the austerity drive in government, at least 4,500 public officials had been taken on since the general election in May last year.
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said last night: “The Government addressed the unacceptable waste and inefficiency in quangos. There is still more to do, but increased transparency in public bodies and the removal of waste are top priorities.”
By Heidi Blake, and Raf Sanchez
The tories...havent they done well since they got into government...They have taken money from the poorest,from the elderly,from the sick,from the handicapped,from the unemployed,from our forces,from our health service and from the hard working people of our country......but,have they not helped anyone?.....
