So frequently does one hear of public money being wasted that it is all too easy to become inured to it. But the Sunday Telegraph’s revelation that the head of Newham council, Joe Duckworth, is paid £240,000 a year should be enough to shock anyone out of their complacency about waste. It is quite simply immoral that in a borough where half the children live in poverty, council tax money is being used to pay for such a grossly inflated salary.
The idea that £240,000 is the market rate for this job is risible. First of all, as the Telegraph points out, the Audit Commission found that the quality rating of the Isle of Wight council did not improve during Duckworth’s tenure. Second, the Prime Minister is paid more than £50,000 less than Mr Duckworth. Third, other far more successful councils than Newham pay their chief executives considerably less.
One of the worst trends in recent years has been the move towards paying executives in the public sector at private sector rates but with public sector level’s of job security and benefits. If Duckworth is to be paid such an astronomical sum of money, then he should be delivering transformative changes in double quick-time. If he isn’t, then there is absolutely no justification for it.
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