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‘Abysmal’ contractor defends £8m payout to risk-taking boss
A COMPANY which won hundreds millions of pounds of Government contracts to get people back has defended the £8m pocketed by its Sheffield-born boss last year.
MPs have criticised the £11m paid in dividends to the five shareholders of A4e, 87 per cent of which is owned by Emma Harrison who is advising David Cameron on getting families back to work.
Members of the Public Accounts Committee have also questioned the success of the company, which has won lucrative contracts for the Government’s flagship Work Programme, on previous back-to-work schemes.
But last night the company hit back, saying Ms Harrison, who owns historic Thornbridge Hall in the Peak District, was paid the going rate.
The company also questioned claims by MPs that its performance on the old Pathways to Work programme had been “abysmal”, insisting its success rate was above average and that all providers underperformed.
A spokesman said: “For the past 21 years, Ms Harrison has taken substantial and significant risks in growing the company.
“Like all entrepreneurs, she has provided personal guarantees and invested significant amount of her personal capital into the company during its lifetime.
He added: “Having built a private company with her own resources, and continued to invest and take risks, her remuneration is in line with that of a successful entrepreneur.”
Ms Harrison became a Government favourite for her drive to get the unemployed back to work.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Dillybumble
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 10:48 AMI read somewhere they are getting people employed at the rate of 1 person every seven minutes, to me thats not failing that getting our country out of recession
MrCynic
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 04:05 PMMs Harrison, a classic example of B******T BAFFLES BRAINS.
mkmky
Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 10:18 AM£8.6 million is the going rate for failure? not to mention the £1.4 million base and she leases her commune mansion to A4E as office space and to hold functions for A4E...Some smells very bad where are HMRC and the crime squad on this one?
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