RPA rewards abject failure

Farmers might have been persuaded to accept that his salary was a small price to pay to ensure the punctual payment of subsidies and bring to an end years of bureaucratic incompetence that have caused so much misery.

Yet, despite the Government paying such an inflated price for Mr

Pearce, plus a further 70,000 to the recruitment consultants who offered his services, this quango remains beset by chaos.

Its chief executive is leaving for personal reasons, Defra's accounts have received a quality warning because of the 160m that had to be paid to the EU for the late payment of subsidies and Jim Paice, the new Agriculture Minister, has had to take personal charge of its management after another damning report concluded that the organisation was not "fit for purpose".

This is despite the RPA, in a predictably lame defence, maintaining that it has made considerable progress in the past year speeding up payments under Mr Pearce's jurisdiction.

What makes this sorry episode so depressing, however, is that it was not an isolated incident and that it is emblematic of the extent to which Labour lost control of public sector pay when in power.

It cannot be right that one individual can earn around 100,000 more than the Prime Minister for attempting to run, and not very effectively, a tiny part of the Whitehall machine.

Yet it is also not right that the Rural Payments Agency is facing yet another management upheaval when its problems have been so well documented over recent years and when the Scottish and Welsh administration appear to be having no difficulties whatsoever in meeting the EU's payment criteria.

Of course, the immediate priority has to be the prompt payment of subsidies. But, as the bill for the RPA's mismanagement escalates still further, this is surely one government agency where there needs to be a closer correlation between the pay of top officials, and the service provided to farmers.