Government stalls recruitment of Audit Commission head
The Government has thrown into disarray the appointment of the new head of the Audit Commission over a £240,000 pay packet.
Eugene Sullivan has been the interim chief executive of the public services watchdog since Steve Bundred left at the end of March.
The coalition government required the Communities and Local Government department to approve the salary of the incoming CEO.
Eric Pickles, secretary of state for Communities and Local Government, believed the pay and pension package was ‘against the spirit’ of controlling the salaries of senior public sector posts.
‘The spiralling level of pay and perks for town hall bosses stops here,’ he said. ‘By blocking this massive salary for the Audit Commission, I want to send a signal to councils across the country that they too can stop paying ridiculous sums to chief executives.
‘Councillors should have the confidence to set sensible salaries that the public deem fit and proper.’
He explained the ‘public coffers are empty’ and believed everyone needed to ‘do their bit’ to cut costs.
‘We should lead from the top – cutting bosses’ pay from the cabinet downwards. It’s time to restore an ethos of public service, rather than aping greedy bankers in the city.’
The Audit Commission started the search for a new chief executive at the start of April and is still looking.
Chairman Michael O’Higgins said: ‘The board of the Audit Commission will consider these issues further at its next meeting on Thursday 10 June and will make a statement following that meeting.’
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Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | 02/06/2010 4:41 pm
Good.
These cuts need to go much deeper still. The Audit Commission inspection regime is holding back improvement across the sector and driving-in massive costs.
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Simon Stokes | 03/06/2010 8:07 am
It isnt always the Audit Commissions fault and its not just those at the top we should be looking at, it the middle managers as well. We have a department of 30 people who have 6 managers who cost in total (salary, pension, benfits etc) £1/4million! Thats rediculous! On top of that they are so incompetant they probably cost the department another £1/4million in inefficiency, we could run the deparment on about 20% less staff if they brought in up to date working practices and cut out all the chatting, coffee drinking, emailing, web surfing and "fag breaks" that proabely waste at least an hour a day on average per member of staff, on top of that we have a sickness level which is the equivalent of 2 people contstantly away.
I used to work in the private sector and they would never have allowed this "complacency" culture that exists in so many Councils who are still working in the 1980's. What all LHA/HA's need is time and motion studies carried out, this is what the Audit Commission and the TSA should be concentrating on, efficiency savings and true value for money in a sector which is creaking under the strain of demand. In our housing department we could save the cost of his salary 4 times over, so maybe we are looking in the wrong areas, we need to stop just blaming those at the top and look at the whole system which is wasting endless amounts of tenants money through incompetancy. And before some say they work hard, yes there are some who do, but very few of those I work with know what hard work is and most wouldnt last 5 minutes in any other workplace, so lets get real and sort ourselves out!
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| 03/06/2010 1:39 pm
Well said Sir. If the Conservatives really want to reform the public sector they should cut through the legions of these timeserving useless public sector LHA/HA office workers, removing the useless and incompetent. A friend of mine works as a HR troubleshooter, now working for councils and ALMOs, and has also worked in the private sector. His experience of councils is as yours. In order to reform these bloated bloodsuckers, they should be forced to recruit from the private sector alone. Nobody with private sector experience can get a senior role in a local authority as the existing timeservers wouldn't allow it. They all want to hire other public sector types with the same beyond lax work ethic as them. If there is going to be real reform then only those with a private sector background should be hired for new senior roles in LHA/HA's. Those with existing experience in similarly useless public sector bodies need not apply. Would love to see that statement in a public sector job ad...!
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Anonymous | 03/06/2010 2:06 pm
Simon Stokes | 03/06/2010 8:07 am
Well all Housing Organisations are following the prescription found in the Audit Commission's key Lines of Enquiry.
You have to start there and get rid of that garbage. Once this is done managers will become responsible for delivering to customers instead of delivering to the Audit Commission what it demands. This will get managers and the organisation pointed in the right direction. Then it will be easier to see who or rather what is delivering any value to customers.
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