23 January 2009
By David Scott
Finance Minister John Swinney has issued a strong warning over excessive bonus payments for public sector chief executives.
Giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament's finance committee on public sector pay on January 20, he emphasised that bonuses should not be paid every year as a 'matter of fact'.
He added: 'That logic doesn't follow for me at all. It has to be for exceptional performance and it has to be demonstrated exactly what that... has been.'
Swinney was responding to Labour finance spokesman David Whitton, who asked whether any bonuses should be paid in cases where chief executives were already receiving reasonable salaries.
Whitton quoted a case in which one chief executive was paid £250,000 a year plus a 38% bonus and asked what justified this level of bonuses.
He added: 'Should there be bonuses anyway for people who are on six-figure salaries?'
Swinney stressed that bonuses in addition to high salaries could be justified only for exceptional performance that included major contributions towards the achievement of public sector policy.
PFjan2009
