Consultants join ranks of best-paid civil servants

Consultants join ranks of best-paid civil servants

Interim director of communications Stephen Hardwick and interim director of organisational transformation Jacquie McGeachie have been employed on one-year contracts on A-grade civil service salaries that will appear in the 2018 States accounts published next year. Only the salaries of civil servants earning above £100,000 appear in the accounts.

And two other consultants employed alongside Mr Hardwick and Ms McGeachie remain on between £1,200 and £1,300 per day more than seven months after being taken on.

All four were employed in October as part of chief executive Charlie Parker’s ‘transition team’ for a period expected to last six months.

At the end of March it was announced that the team had been ‘stood down’ after completing its work, but with all four consultants due to stay on in various positions.

The details of those new positions and their terms of employment can now be made public for the first time.

They are:

*Stephen Hardwick – interim director of communications on a one-year contract as an employee of the States on an A-grade civil service salary.

*Jacquie McGeachie – interim director of organisational transformation on a one-year contract as an employee of the States on an A-grade civil service salary.

*Camilla Black – directly contracted consultant (employed without the use of an agency) leading finance transformation across the States on £1,350 per day.

*Anna Daroy – remains interim chief operating officer on the original consultancy contract of £1,333 per day plus accommodation and travel costs, pending the recruitment of a permanent member of staff to the role. The length of the contract extension depends on the timing of a permanent appointment.

The details about the current roles of the transition team – who were initially employed as consultants via interim management and recruitment firm Odgers Interim – comes just days after it was revealed that a private company is also to be brought in to help deliver the planned reforms of the public sector.

The States – which this week revealed that all senior civil servants are being made to reapply for their jobs – have advertised for a contractor to assist Mr Parker in his planned overhaul, which he has said will include introducing a ‘culture based on teamwork, collaboration and getting things right first time’.

Meanwhile, a States spokeswoman said that more information about the salaries of Mr Hardwick and Ms McGeachie would be published in due course.

‘Stephen and Jacquie will be employed on standard States of Jersey terms and conditions for senior employees, paid within the range for A-grade senior civil servants. Their salaries will be included alongside other senior civil servants in the 2018 annual report (published in 2019),’ she said.

‘The terms for the two remaining as consultants remain as they were.’

She added: ‘The States accounts are published annually and include the salaries of named accounting officers, plus a segmental analysis of staff earning more than £100,000.’

The transition team was first employed in October, with Mr Parker saying they would be paid between £1,200 and £1,300 each per day for about six months. Those figures included the fee paid to Odgers Interim.

The annual report of the States Employment Board released this week shows that while employed originally as consultants, Mr Hardwick earned £1,266 per day, Ms Black £1,350 per day, Ms Daroy £1,333 per day and Ms McGeachie £1,350 per day.

At the time their appointments were announced, Mr Parker – who became one of Jersey’s top public-sector earners when he joined the payroll on a salary between £250,000 and £259,999 – said he knew some of the four professionally but had never worked with them before. He added that they were each among the best in their respective fields.

As of the end of March, the team’s consultancy fees amounted to more than £400,000, while accommodation and travel costs took the total spent on the consultants to £432,945 – lower than the £600,000 over six months first estimated by the States.

The spokeswoman confirmed that travel and accommodation are no longer being funded for the three consultants who have agreed new short-term contracts, unless they travel on business like any other States officer.

She added: ‘The fourth remains on the original terms, which includes accommodation and travel, since this was a short-term contract extension pending an open, external recruitment exercise for the permanent role.’

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