It never rains but it pours for the public finances. I gather that the senior ranks of the civil service right across Whitehall are currently having their annual bonuses agreed – with large numbers of them expecting to receive lump sum payments running into the tens of thousands of pounds.

It scarcely needs saying that with the deficit crashing ever onwards, the eurozone crisis at the door, junior civil servants losing their jobs, dire forecasts about the income prospects of ordinary taxpayers and unemployment continuing to rise, the prospect of paying five figure bonuses to well-paid mandarins at the top of Whitehall departments sticks in the throat.

Thanks to the recent improvements in spending transparency, we’ll find out how much of our cash is given to them, but only after it’s been handed over. The public who fund and are served by these departments will have no say in how generous their bonuses are, and will be left to howl in the wilderness should any of them appear to be excessive or undeserved after they’ve been paid.

Given the prevailing circumstances in the economy and the public finances, the very least these public servants could do to serve the public would be to voluntarily waive their bonuses this year. Ministers have already taken a pay cut, and tens of millions of people across the country have no bonus (still less generous gold plated pension) at all. Will Sir Humphrey chip in and do his bit?

Tags: Bonuses, Civil Service, Deficit, Economics, National Debt, opinion, Politics, public spending, Taxes, Westminster, Whitehall

Categories: Opinion, Politics, Public spending

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One Response

1. 

   Sophie Hobson:

   This is not what the public will want to hear, given the recent publication of unemployment figures!
   Sophie Hobson, deputy editor LondonLovesBusiness

   13.10.2011 16:30 Reply