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The Lives of Others

Chris West of Insight Public Affairs blogs for PR Week

The blame game - whoever wins, we all lose   

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Time for a good old fashioned economy drive.  Which means its time to go after the favourite targets – quangos (more fun to burn than witches), and those fat cats masquerading as bankers and senior civil servants.  But hang on a minute.  Whilst there are certainly positions in the civil service where large salaries need to be justified, is a “naming and shaming” of such positions, as suggested by the PM this week, the most progressive step to take?

If a senior civil servant is regarded as being overpaid at £100,000, does responsibility for the situation lie with the individual who took the salary offered, or the budget holder who agreed to the final figure?  Tighter auditing of such salaries is to be welcomed, but blaming the individuals in post seems to be an unfair and misdirected use of the stick – I can’t think of many in the public or private sector who’ve accepted a job on the proviso that the offered salary is lowered.

Yes, we need to lose some of the public spending.  But lets not lose our manners and common sense as well.

 

Published Dec 07 2009, 06:34 PM by Chris West

All Comments

TRJC, December 9, 2009

it's the incredulity of newspaper editors (not in the least overpaid) at the pay of civil servants. Problem with the civil service is that (to make a sweeping statement) promotions are more likely to be based on time served and not quality of work done - and that can indeed lead to people getting pay that is lower than they 'deserve' - it equally results in people being underpaid as well. if we want decent public sector empoyees (at all levels) then we should pay them a wage which reflects the work they are doing, instead of underpaying them and having to deal with the resulting labour flight into the provate sector.

 
 
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The Lives of Others

Chris West of Insight Public Affairs blogs for PR Week

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The Lives of Others

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Last login: 03-11-2010

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