- States spending watchdog to carry out fresh review of ‘golden handshakes’ paid to civil servants.
- Move follows the JEP’s revelation that more than £2.5 million of taxpayers money had been spent paying off 26 public-sector workers in the last five years.
- Take part in our poll on the issue below
A FRESH review of ‘golden handshakes’ paid to civil servants who leave their posts is to be undertaken by the States spending watchdog.
The move comes after the JEP revealed on Saturday that more than £2.5 million of taxpayers’ money had been spent paying off 26 public-sector workers in the last five years, with the average payment totalling about £100,000.
£2.5 million would pay the annual salaries of all of the following:
- 5 x grade 4 nurses
- 5 x grade 4 child care officers
- 5 x grade 4 teachers
- 5 x fire fighters
- 5 x grade 4 civil servants
- 5 x grade 4 manual workers
- 5 x grade 4 doctors
- 5 x police sergeants
- 5 x grade 4 air traffic controllers
- 5 x grade 4 hospital chaplains
- 5 x grade 4 prison officers
- 5 x grade 4 youth workers[/breakout]
According to figures released to this newspaper following a Freedom of Information request, a fifth of the total amount was spent on pay-offs in the last two years – after Chief Minister Ian Gorst pledged to crack down on the practice following a report from the Island’s Comptroller and Auditor General, Chris Swinson.
The Public Accounts Committee, who scrutinise how public money is spent, now want to find out if the Comptroller’s recommendations following that review have been implemented.
Mr Swinson’s recommendations included looking at the States’ performance review and appraisal systems and introducing measures designed to develop a public sector based on ‘mutual respect and shared values’. And if the panel find that some of the recommendations have not been implemented, they will want to know why.
Committee chairman Deputy Andrew Lewis said he expected that the practice of paying people to leave their jobs would need to continue as the States are restructured in the coming years, and it was therefore important to ensure that they were being used appropriately.
‘We have had a number of accusations about compromise agreements, so we want to be assured that everything that could have been done that was suggested has been done,’ said Deputy Lewis.
‘We will be looking at the recommendations made by the Comptroller, looking at the things the Chief Minister accepted and asking the department whether they have put them in place. If they haven’t, we will want to know why.
‘The fact that it seems to have occurred again suggests that maybe all is not well within the personnel department and Chief Minister’s Department regarding compromise agreements.
‘What we are not saying is compromise agreements are a bad thing, but they should be a last resort.
‘As we restructure the States, there may well be more of this kind of thing. We have to make sure that compromise agreements are used appropriately and still demonstrate value for money.’
The Comptroller’s investigation in 2012 came after the JEP helped to expose one of the largest ‘golden handshake’ payments to have been paid by the States when former chief executive Bill Ogley left his post with a £546,337 pay-off.
The subject has got Islanders talking on the JEP’s Letters to the Editor pages:
From Trevor Copp.
AT a time when we are told that expenditure would suffer cutbacks, and we are told that we must all ‘tighten our belts’, the headline on Saturday (JEP 28 February) and front page article must surely be a slap in the face and a gross insult to all Islanders (with the possible exception of the majority of those sitting in regal splendour in the Royal Square).
Once again we must thank the JEP for bringing this to our notice as, clearly, this was meant to be an under the carpet job. Keeping in mind the amount stated on the front page, we read on the back page an athletics team had to cancel an inter-insular for the want of £5,000 to charter an aircraft for a visit to Guernsey, which equates to about one month of the States Chamber drinking water bill. I know how I would wish the money to be spent.
Again, earlier in the week we were told that the Constable of St Martin had been told that there was not enough money in the pot to repair a stretch of the coastal footpath which has been closed for at least two years. Clearly, some pots are much larger than others (the one labelled ‘greed’ springs to mind).
In a financial article in the JEP a few weeks ago it was stated that it was not worth trying to save trifling amounts, as in the larger scheme of things they amounted to virtually nothing. But let’s have a look at some: £2.5 million (JEP 28 February), £5,000 Sea Cadets’ money wasted, £60,000 States drinking water, £200,000 ‘conned’ for a film that probably never was; and so it goes on.
Recently we were told that graduates should be encouraged to return to the Island, but to do what? Many have surely realised that to return to an Island heading for oblivion would give them a secure footing – in the words of the (very) old song – On the Road to Nowhere.
From David Talbot.
ISN’T it time our government stopped giving out our money?
They seem so keen on distributing it among themselves – as if we wouldn’t notice, or are they in such a position of power that there isn’t much that we can do about it?
Isn’t it time that they started thinking about the poor and needy that they have created through their unfair system of taxation instead of leaving it up to charity to help us out?
Isn’t it time that we, the people of Jersey, liberated ourselves yet again from dictatorship and started living a decent life by getting off our backsides and voting – and making our government cross!
From John Heys.
OK this is it, I cannot maintain my somewhat cynical cool any more. I am more than bemused or in disbelief, I am so annoyed I can hardly type this out.
Constantly informed that this big fat financially advantaged Island of Jersey has billions of pounds swishing around, and is even recovering from a terrible recession better than most, but still has hundreds on income support, families having to have food parcels, many out of work and some suffering the disgusting zero-hour contracts, it has to be admitted that the government has grossly overspent and is planning to spend even more with little or no control.
The zero-ten policy to be made up for by GST has failed, as predicted, so now we have suggestions like charging for prescriptions, sewage, and so on to try to stop the rot while in Saturday’s edition it is revealed that golden handshakes amount to millions of pounds.
This state of affairs is absolutely beyond belief. Civil servants receiving huge salaries, many over £150,000 a year, being paid off immoral amounts of money, some we are aware of not even completing their five-year contract, a situation that Chief Minister Ian Gorst pledged to crack down on. Other than hanging his head in shame and apologising to the tax-paying public for failing to keep his promise, he actually tries to justify this lunacy by saying that every case is rigorously scrutinised and is only agreed when it is in the best interests of the States of Jersey.
What on earth is he talking about? How can paying £546,337.50 to Bill Ogley, for example, possibly be in the best interest of the States, ie, us?
Then, on page 2, we have Senator Gorst laying the blame on the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office as it is they who regularly review the policy. In that case both the Comptroller and Auditor General and Senator Gorst should stand down immediately as having failed the people of Jersey, and without a golden handshake, before any more terrible decisions are made.
From David Râtel.
WELL after a desperate few days of news, our money continuing to disappear at a much greater rate than it can ever come in, some acceptable reading. (JEP 28 February).
Twenty-six public sector workers get £100,000 pay-off (well they do write their own contracts).
You may wonder why I am even remotely pleased…..because at least we can now proudly say: ‘It’s not the lunatics that run our asylum!’
WITH eight per cent of States employees retiring or moving on each year, the public sector salary bill should be declining.
However, as the latest Jersey Labour Market survey shows, public sector core employment went up by 2.9% – 200 full-time posts – in the year to June 2014.
It is therefore not surprising that, with a structural deficit looming, the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel wants to see more evidence of savings made by senior managers.
St John Constable Chris Taylor is by no means alone in feeling frustrated over lack of progress.
According to Treasury Minister Alan Maclean, the so-called ‘Lean’ programme has so far cost £500,000, not far short of the £610,000 in savings achieved to date – hardly an impressive result.
On the other hand, as Unite spokesman Nick Corbel has said, Islanders have come to expect good standards and would be the first to complain if essential services were reduced. This is not just a matter of saving money, but affects people’s lives and livelihoods at the most basic level.
The Treasury Minister has been given a tough task which requires treading a fine tightrope.
Bill Ogley
FORMER States chief executive Bill Ogley was paid £546,337.50p in a ‘golden handshake’ pay-out for leaving his job in May 2011, it was revealed in 2012
The figure was announced by Chief Minister Ian Gorst, who also vowed to stop huge pay-outs to departing staff in the future.
The Senator’s announcement ended months of speculation about the six-figure pay-out and set him directly against his predecessor, Terry Le Sueur, who refused to reveal the figure, and his own chief officer, John Richardson, who had been fighting the JEP’s requests to get to the facts.
This newspaper has been campaigning for the release of the figures since suspicions of a large pay-off emerged in the autumn.
A request was made by the JEP under the Freedom of Information code, but that was refused. Follow-up questions were also met with a wall of silence – until Senator Gorst revealed the figure.
Mr Ogley, the States’ top earner in 2010 with a combined salary and pension contribution figure of up to £270,000, agreed that the information could be released.
Stephen Izatt
THE former chief executive of the Waterfront Enterprise Board received a pay-out of £170,000 in 2011.
The figure was not originally released because Mr Izatt was not technically a civil servant, as he was employed by a States-owned company run as an independent business.
But after a series of requests from the JEP and a public outcry, the full extent of the civil service pay-outs was made public by the States independent spending watchdog, Comptroller and Auditor General Chris Swinson
Howard Le Cornu
JERSEY’S former Harbourmaster received a pay-off to leave his £100,000-a-year job two years ago, the Chief Minister confirmed in January this year
Senator Ian Gorst said that Howard Le Cornu’s pay-off had been among the compromise agreements identified by the States spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General, in 2012.
