11 November 2005
The troubled Child Support Agency has refused to disclose whether former chief executive Doug Smith received a bonus before leaving earlier this year – despite revealing that senior staff have received £123,000 in windfalls since 2003.
Opposition MPs this week attacked the bonuses paid to civil servants as 'scandalous'.
The agency has been dogged by IT failures, growing payment backlogs and poor performance since it switched to a supposedly simplified payment system for child maintenance in 2003.
But it remains unclear whether Smith received a one-off bonus after he announced last November he was to leave the agency. He eventually left in April.
Former work and pensions secretary Alan Johnson threatened to use the 'nuclear option' and close the CSA after a damning critique from a parliamentary committee early this year, but executives have continued to receive large bonuses.
The figures were revealed in correspondence between the agency's new chief executive, Stephen Geraghty, and Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesman David Laws on November 1.
Ten CSA executives received bonuses totalling £38,550 in 2004/05, including one 'special bonus payment' of £5,500, Geraghty revealed. Seven civil servants received extra payments of £38,120 in 2003/04, while seven received £47,000 in 2002/03.
Laws said: 'It's unbelievable and scandalous that any bonus at all should be being paid in an organisation which is in chaos and failing children and families. They got rid of almost all the performance targets they used to have, and even those they do have missed by miles in all but one case.'
The agency has written off almost £1bn in cash owed by parents, overpayed thousands of claimants, has continuing problems with a £465m IT system, and has a 350,000 backlog of unresolved cases. On top of that, CSA bosses recently revealed that the agency has missed around a million calls from the public.
A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said ministers could not disclose individuals' bonuses 'because the information is a private matter'. Yet it is common practice for large businesses and departments to publish bonus payments made to staff and the Treasury has urged government agencies to do the same.
Commenting on the CSA bonus structure since 2003, the DWP spokesman added: 'A number of senior managers have worked extremely hard to improve performance on the new child support system in particular. These bonuses reflect that contribution.'
However, the CSA's annual report shows that the organisation missed almost all key performance targets for the new payment system after 2003. The report also states that the CSA 'cannot quote reliable figures' for the period.
Unions warn of job losses if MoD privatises repair contract
Ministry of Defence plans to privatise repair work for aircraft and armoured vehicles could lead to 1,950 extra job losses and jeopardise standards, civil service unions have warned.
Whitehall's engineering and science community has reacted with dismay to this week's announcement by armed forces minister Adam Ingram that two MoD trading operations – the Defence Aviation Repair Agency and the Army Base Repair Organisation, which provide logistical support to the military – are to be 'streamlined' by 2007.
Up to 1,950 jobs, many of them held by specialist staff, could be lost, Ingram revealed on November 8. The T&G union, which represents civilian MoD staff, estimates that a further 1,200 jobs could be at risk.
The MoD says that any savings made under the plan 'will be reinvested in defence'.
Ingram announced that Dara's 'fast jet' work in Glamorgan would close from April 2007. More than 500 jobs will be lost on top of 500 that were announced last year.
A further 225 posts would be lost at Dara's engine repair site in Hampshire, Ingram said. Officials could also sell Dara's helicopter repair sites in Scotland, although a final decision has yet to be made. Meanwhile, around 1,200 redundancies will be announced at eight Abro sites.
The Prospect civil service union, which represents specialist staff, said the tight timetables for closure imposed by the MoD meant that compulsory redundancies 'cannot be avoided'.
Steve Jary, the union's national secretary, warned: 'The MoD will lose nearly all of its facilities for maintaining, repairing and refitting aircraft and combat vehicles. Once that in-house knowledge is gone, the MoD will be almost totally reliant on the private sector.'
DTI cannot say how much it spends on consultants
The Department of Trade and Industry, one of Whitehall's smallest departments, employed a total of 332 consultants during 2004/05, but has no idea how much they paid individuals.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson provided the frank admission to MPs last week. Responding to questions from the Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, Johnson revealed that the 332 consultants, including key academics and economists, were employed by the core DTI (excluding arm's-length bodies and UK Trade and Industry Investments) at October 31 this year.
But asked if he could provide figures for the costs attached to advisers for each of the past five years, Johnson responded: 'The department does not hold central records of the cost of consultants and agency staff as a sub-group of total costs for consultancy, agency and services contracts.'
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