Executives at taxpayer-owned Scottish Water paid themselves more than £1.5 million last year, including £369,000 in bonuses. Despite a wider public sector pay freeze, the quango’s accounts show that the 12 board members earned an average of £131,000 in 2011-12, up seven per cent on the previous year. Included in the £1.5 million are bonuses paid to five of the officials, who received an average £73,800 on top of their salaries. Pension benefits have increased too: the four longest-serving chiefs now have pension pots worth a combined £3.8 million.
Chief Executive Richard Ackroyd also retained his tarnished crown as Scotland’s highest paid trougher, trousering a salary of £263,000, a bonus worth £105,000 and other perks worth £12,000.
It is astonishing that bosses at the Scottish quango remain so detached from reality. At a time when ordinary families are having to tighten their belts and when many lower-paid public sector workers’ pay is frozen or even cut, it’s unbelievable that some public sector executives continue to feather their own nests at taxpayers’ expense. This contempt for value for money will only call into question why taxpayers’ money is being used to maintain ownership of a company that could be privately owned, especially at a time when government debt has soared to such dangerously high levels.Executives at taxpayer-owned Scottish Water paid themselves more than £1.5 million last year, including £369,000 in bonuses. Despite a wider public sector pay freeze, the quango’s accounts show that the 12 board members earned an average of £131,000 in 2011-12, up seven per cent on the previous year. Included in the £1.5 million are bonuses paid to five of the officials, who received an average £73,800 on top of their salaries. Pension benefits have increased too: the four longest-serving chiefs now have pension pots worth a combined £3.8 million.
Chief Executive Richard Ackroyd also retained his tarnished crown as Scotland’s highest paid trougher, trousering a salary of £263,000, a bonus worth £105,000 and other perks worth £12,000.
It is astonishing that bosses at the Scottish quango remain so detached from reality. At a time when ordinary families are having to tighten their belts and when many lower-paid public sector workers’ pay is frozen or even cut, it’s unbelievable that some public sector executives continue to feather their own nests at taxpayers’ expense. This contempt for value for money will only call into question why taxpayers’ money is being used to maintain ownership of a company that could be privately owned, especially at a time when government debt has soared to such dangerously high levels.
Chief Executive Richard Ackroyd also retained his tarnished crown as Scotland’s highest paid trougher, trousering a salary of £263,000, a bonus worth £105,000 and other perks worth £12,000.
It is astonishing that bosses at the Scottish quango remain so detached from reality. At a time when ordinary families are having to tighten their belts and when many lower-paid public sector workers’ pay is frozen or even cut, it’s unbelievable that some public sector executives continue to feather their own nests at taxpayers’ expense. This contempt for value for money will only call into question why taxpayers’ money is being used to maintain ownership of a company that could be privately owned, especially at a time when government debt has soared to such dangerously high levels.Executives at taxpayer-owned Scottish Water paid themselves more than £1.5 million last year, including £369,000 in bonuses. Despite a wider public sector pay freeze, the quango’s accounts show that the 12 board members earned an average of £131,000 in 2011-12, up seven per cent on the previous year. Included in the £1.5 million are bonuses paid to five of the officials, who received an average £73,800 on top of their salaries. Pension benefits have increased too: the four longest-serving chiefs now have pension pots worth a combined £3.8 million.
Chief Executive Richard Ackroyd also retained his tarnished crown as Scotland’s highest paid trougher, trousering a salary of £263,000, a bonus worth £105,000 and other perks worth £12,000.
It is astonishing that bosses at the Scottish quango remain so detached from reality. At a time when ordinary families are having to tighten their belts and when many lower-paid public sector workers’ pay is frozen or even cut, it’s unbelievable that some public sector executives continue to feather their own nests at taxpayers’ expense. This contempt for value for money will only call into question why taxpayers’ money is being used to maintain ownership of a company that could be privately owned, especially at a time when government debt has soared to such dangerously high levels.