This year’s Public Sector Rich List includes a list of the top ten ‘Rewards for Failure’. But it’s not enough just to show how failure has been rewarded with taxpayers’ money; British taxpayers also have a right to complain. Even where people have left their job – as Rose Gibb has at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, for example – it’s still important to complain to ensure that failure on such a scale never happens again. Below are the contact details for five government bodies where failure has been rewarded. Do your bit today to hold these bodies to account.
Royal Mail
Chief Executive: Adam Crozier (No. 1 on Rich List: £1,256,000 per annum)
Managing Director: Ian Griffiths (No. 2: £970,000 p.a.)
To voice your concern about the Royal Mail executives who have overseen strikes, the abolition of the second post and increases in postal charges, send a message on their website or call them on 08457 740 740.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Former Chief Executive: Rose Gibb (No. 288 on Rich List: £150,000 p.a.)
Rose Gibb presided over an outbreak of C. Difficile which the Healthcare Commission say was directly responsible for 90 deaths and contributed to 331 more. Her management style, described as "autocratic" and "difficult to challenge", was held to be partly responsible for the problems in the Trust by the Commission. Although Rose Gibbs has left, please make the point that cleanliness in our hospitals should never face such neglect again, and overseeing such disastrous failure should never be rewarded. Please email or write to:
The Chief Executive
Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Service Centre
Maidstone Hospital
Hermitage Lane
Maidstone
Kent
ME16 9QQ
Environment Agency
Chief Executive: Barbara Young (No. 87 on Rich List: £220,000 p.a.)
The Agency failed to meet its target of protecting an extra 31,000 homes from flooding and get at least 63 per cent of flood management systems up to the required standard. Floods this summer have cost £3.3 billion to insurers and £14 million in government support has been put in place.
You can complain to the Environment Agency for not reaching its targets to protect tens of thousands of homes from flooding by phone on 08708 506 506 (Mon-Fri 8-6 calls are charged at a local rate), email or post.
National Customer Contact Centre
Templeborough Office,
Bowridge Close,
Bradmarsh Business Park,
Templeborough,
Rotherham, S60 1BY
If you’re not happy with the response you get, then take the EA’s advice and contact the relevant Ombudsman:
The Local Government Ombudsman looks at complaints about flood defence and land drainage. Contact them by phone on 0845 602 1983 or via the website about the Environment Agency’s failure to meet its target of protecting an extra 31,000 homes from flooding.
Olympic Delivery Authority
Chief Executive: David Higgins (No. 8 on Rich List: £631,000 p.a.)
Senior staff at the ODA have received substantial bonuses despite repeated increases in the budgets for the major venues. The aquatics centre doubled in cost to £150 million and the stadium budget rose from £280 million to £500 million just this October. David Higgins was awarded the largest bonus of £215,000.
You can hold the Olympic Delivery Authority to account for constantly running over budget by calling 0203 2012 000, by email or sending a letter to:
London 2012
One Churchill Place
Canary Wharf
London E14 5LN
Child Support Agency
Chief Executive: Stephen Geraghty (No. 110: £200,000 p.a.)
The Public Accounts Committee revealed that 333,000 cases - 22 per cent of the CSA's workload - are stuck in the system, more than half of its maintenance assessments are wrong and it costs the agency 70p for every £1 it collects in child maintenance. The CSA is now being replaced by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.
You can complain to the CSA for failing families by commenting via the CSA website, by phone on 08457 133 133 or to local CSA offices. You will be notified by call, letter or email within 2 days to acknowledge the receipt of your complaint. They will let you know of the outcome of your complaint within 15 working days.
Do let us know how you get on by emailing [email protected] so we can publicise them on our website. Hopefully if we keep up the pressure, such failure in our public services will never happen again.