04.07.12
‘Irregular’ payments to staff at RDA as it wound down
The National Audit Office has criticised “irregular” payments totalling £51,000 given to staff at the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) as it wound down.
Is February 2011, BIS approved retention payments worth up to 12 months’ salary for nominated key staff in each RDA who would be critical to ensuring smooth and efficient closure of the organisations.
EEDA agreed its pay remit with BIS in May 2011, including a clause banning further pay increases or bonuses. But then EEDA’s board and Remuneration and Selection Committee chose to make two separate ex-gratia payments of £500 each to almost all staff except executive directors, in August and December 2011.
Auditors said this breached the pay remit and BIS refused to give retrospective approval for the payments.
After an investigation, Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said yesterday: “I have concluded that these ex-gratia payments are irregular. I recognise that, in total, the sum involved is not substantial, but the payments exceeded a clearly understood pay remit and did not take into account the wider considerations of public sector pay restraint and the specific initiative already in place to reward those individuals considered key to delivering closure of the Agency.”
He has therefore qualified his audit opinion on the 2011-12 financial statements of the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) because of the irregular ex-gratia payments.
Tell us what you think – have your say below, or email us directly at [email protected]