Hypocrisy on pay

IF there was a clear correlation between high pay and high performance, the news that the Government is considering big salary packages for its mandarins at a rate of two a week would perhaps not be so alarming. Sadly, after 15 years of rocketing wages in the public sector, it is no longer guaranteed that you get what you pay for.

The Prime Minister promised to get on top of the issue after years of big bonuses and occasionally even bigger pay-offs under Labour. Yet, since David Cameron became PM, the Treasury has been asked to sign off nearly 200 Civil Service salaries higher than the amount paid to the Tory leader.

This is particularly galling at the end of another week of bizarre Whitehall management decisions – first the £30,000-a-year contract to rent a dozen fig trees for an MPs’ office block then the Highways Agency quoting £190,000 to put up two roadside signs on the A1M. Neither fiasco inspires confidence.

Furthermore, the Government’s reluctance to reveal how many of the 189 proposed pay packages have been signed off poses serious questions about Mr Cameron’s commitment to openness and transparency.

Such general information in no way reveals personal details of individual contracts, and withholding it could be interpreted as a smokescreen to hide the fact that the majority of contracts were given the green light.

Executive pay – in both public and private sector – is a hot topic but one that needs to be handled with responsibility. The unedifying trial by media of RBS boss Stephen Hester has shown politicians at their opportunistic worst.

Now their words seem even more hollow, given how this Government’s own actions leave itself open to the charge of hypocrisy.