4 Major issues yet to be solved
20. At the end of November 2009, the Commission
discovered it had paid an extra £15,000 directly to one of
the re-engaged staff three months after the individual had stopped
working for the Commission. The Commission had not included this
amount in the £323,708 of consultancy costs reported to the
Treasury in January 2009. The Commission's Accounting Officer
had launched an investigation, but had not yet been able to find
out the justification for why the payment was made. He apologised
for not having informed this Committee of this amount sooner,
and accepted the Committee's criticism that this was not the way
to run a public body.[64]
21. The Commission has also breached its pay
remit and staff complement.[65]
The pay remit is an agreement between the Commission, the Department
and the Treasury, which sets the limit for pay increases for permanent
employees. The Commission's first pay remit was agreed with the
Treasury in September 2008 and was based on estimated staff numbers.
However, the estimated staff numbers were higher than the number
of permanent staff actually employed. Although the total cash
paid by the Commission was in line with the pay remit, it was
shared amongst fewer staff. This meant that staff had received
an average increase of 6.81% for 2007-08 and 4.8% for 2008-09,
which exceeded the limits of 4% and 4.5% set out in the pay remit.[66]
22. The Commission had also discovered in July
2009 that it was employing a total of 574 full time equivalent
staff, whereas the Department had authorised it to employ only
525. This arose because of weak processes for recording, monitoring
and reporting staff numbers.[67]
The Commission's Accounting Officer stated that it had learned
the lessons from these problems, and had put in place strong arrangements
to control its staffing numbers. The Commission has now successfully
reduced its staff complement from 574 to 511.[68]
23. The Commission's first Chief Executive resigned
in May 2009. This left the Commission in a difficult position
as there remained major issues to be resolved. A competition was
held to appoint an interim Director General to lead the organisation
and act as Accounting Officer while the Department carried out
a full recruitment exercise to appoint a permanent Chief Executive.
The recruitment exercise took place during the summer but has
not yet been concluded.[69]
The interim Director General's contract runs only until January
2010.[70] As he costs
£1,000 per day, this interim arrangement will cost the Commission
£138,000 (excluding VAT) by the end of January 2010.[71]
64 Q 11; C&AG's Report, para 9 Back
65
Q 12 Back
66
EV 18, paras 28 and 29 Back
67
EV 19, paras 31 and 32 Back
68
Q 12 Back
69
Qq 82-86 Back
70
Q 80 Back
71
EV 30 Back
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