Like ConservativeHome I feel a real sense of outrage that Paul Gray has emerged smelling of roses with a £200,000 a year job working for Sir Gus O'Donnell in the Cabinet Office. It was he, you will remember, who resigned from HMRC after the disc-gate scandal. As Treasury Select Committee Chairman John McFall says in the Telegraph, "Instead of falling on his sword he's fallen on a feather bed." You can say that again. OK, I will. "Instead of falling on his sword he's fallen on a feather bed."
The Cabinet Office says that even though he resigned: "For contractual reasons, he remains a senior civil servant. He will be leaving the civil service at the end of this year." I resigned from my job last Monday. Did I expect to be paid until the end of year? Did I ****. This is civil service insider trading of the very worst kind - and the government has allowed it to happen, no questions asked.
63 comments:
It is worth mentioning that his new job is to work on projects to "develop Civil Servants skills"!
Why are we surprised by this? I've always thought this was common practice.
No doubt the same will happen with Mr Watt, Mr Mendelsohn, Ms Alexander, etc. etc. etc.
The top twenty civil servants have a pension pot worth £35 million. The people who mend the traffic lights get up to £93000 in one case , and those painting the ,lines on the road over £50,000The South East England Development Agency ( SEEDA) deserve special commendation. Last year the chairman James Braithwaite spent£51489 , on taxis , going to see other pointless bureaucrats . The agency spent £600,000 last year running ten overseas offices with one representative in Stuttgart paid £89,000 for either months work. One North, the agency for the North spent £965,000 on an offices in China , the USA Japan Korea and Belgium while Yorkshire forward spent £20,000 sending its staff to a film festival in Dubai . These entirely worthless talking shops have an annual budget of £2.3 billion which is an awful lot of Labour glad handing
AS I recently blogged the country is corrupt from top to bottom but it all starts , as it always does at the top. This is the problem in a nutshell.:
1 When I buy for me with my money I care about quality and value for money
2 When I buy for me with other peoples money I care about quality but not value for money
3 When I buy for others with other peoples, money .....
I don’t care at all
I am not surprised to read this but it is still nauseating , quite nauseating
This points a finger at how weak civil service employment practises are, especially how hidebound they are by chronically over-indulgent agreements with unions. Simply put, it is almost impossible to sack a civil servant, even for gross misconduct, if they have served more than a few years. This is one reason why successive governments have been forced down the road of overpriced outsourcing, as this is a method of getting the job done. However, the latter also contributed to the fiasco at HMRC as managers did not send the data for processing out confidential information, due to excessive charges from EDS for the simplest "outsourced" tasks.
What's really needed is a much slimmer civil service on proper performance contracts with time-limited service. We also need to remove many of the contractors who are simply milking taxpayers money to a staggering extent and revoke the WTO agreements where these are the cause of outsourcing being applied. Also an external specialist police unit to systematically track down instances where corrupt relationships between contractors and departing or incoming civil servants, and relatives/friends of government ministers have been involved in allotting contracts.
When you say "the government has allowed this to happen", do you mean the government is responsible for hiring and firing civil servants, and deciding the terms of their employment? I though that was the remit of the Executive (ie The Crown) Like Miss Wagstaff, I'm not surprised. A re-viewing of "Yes, Prime Minister" might help here!
I had a similar outraged post ready to roll last night but thought again about it as:
1) I wasn't sure that Mr Gray benefited financially from the work at the Cabinet office.
2) This should have been picked up at the time of his announced resignation. ( I think I commented at the time of Alistair Darling's announcement to the commons that Mr Gray had offered his resignation - Darling didn't confirm he had accepted it. )
This looks more like poor judgement of the public's reaction - unless he is still employed in the civil service in 2008, in which case questions will rightly be asked.
It may be that Mr Gray is in fact being public spirited prefers to work for his money rather than just be given it. He perhaps deserves the beenfit of the doubt for now.
I have to say, the man is more honourable than the various bigwigs in the Labour party, who have not just seen a lapse of an administrative procedure 9albeit an important one) by some Junior Official , many steps below them in the hierarchy, but have seen a breaking of the Law on a matter very close to them, if not directly responsible themselves.
For one moment you almost believed that someone was actually willing to resign over the missing disks debacle and at least felt that Paul Gray had honourably taken the bullet for his department . Now we learn that this is just the usual "smoke and mirrors" subterfuge by those that think themselves deserving of special treatment over the "oiks" they rule.
Brown should be skewered at PMQs for this deceit although I read from press reports that No10 was "unaware" of this - it having been done solely by Gus O'Donnell allegedly ,according to sources ,without reference to the PM - This excuse of "Nuthin to do with me,Guv" is beginning to wear a bit thin. For Christ' Sake Brown's the PM - he IS responsible for everything that occurs in government . It's tough - but it goes with the job or is he saying that he is aware of absolutely nothing that occurs within the Cabinet Office let alone government. In which case he's too incompetent to be Prime Minister
Forget Gordon's GOAT, now we have Gordon's BOAR... The Rise of the BOAR" based on a concept by Gusando O'Donnellnucci.
Newmania writes 1 When I buy for me with my money I care about quality and value for money.
2 When I buy for me with other peoples money I care about quality but not value for money. 3 When I buy for others with other peoples, money ..... I don’t care at all
I presume s/he's a radical pacifist, as this would appear to rule out any possibility of effective defence procurement, among other things...
It is not surprising. They are all crooks.
Clearly the civil service has been so completely politicised by NuLab that it has now incorporated NuLab's accountability ethics: "it wasn't my fault and even if it was and I had to resign I still expect another plum job, thank you very much". Presumably they'll make him an EU Commisioner next....
There should be a law pursuant to which any politician or civil servant who ****s up automatically loses his/her pension rights.
Iain, why was the donation to Wendy Alexander for £950. ? Isn't that a rather strange figure to end up with?
Why wasn't this personal cheque made out for £1,000.?
Weird? Bizarre? Freaky? yes.
Nauseating and outragious, jobs for the boys and all that! Is he taeching them how to print nice covers for CD's?
oh - I get it now...
Having donated less than £1,000, 'they' should have been able to remain anonymous under electoral law.
Another loophole?
There needs to be a review of how we 'treat' failure in this Septic Isle. What bad examples the Ruling Class are setting! From Paul Gray to Steve McLaren to a Labour Minister of State (take your pick), it all starts with the original contract of employment. Gray will claim that he is just 'working his notice', and this is backed up by official pronouncement. McLaren's contract allowed him to trouser a cool sum, thank you very much. Cabinet Ministers allowed back into the fold after a suitable period. They are missing the point though. At those levels, the stakes are high, but if this is how they treat failure, oh for some success!
IA 10:48
"I presume s/he's a radical pacifist, as this would appear to rule out any possibility of effective defence procurement, among other things..."
Having worked there Newmania's analysis supports number 2. In laymans terms it goes like this:
MOD define specification and invite bids.
Contravtors bid and fall roughly into 2 categories. Those who can do the job but not for the money and those who cannot do the job but can bid to the money. However, as HM (sic) G does not overbless the system with cash guess which bid gets approval. Thereafter, all, repeat all, contracts are subject to a "best value" review which reduces the offered capability to match the money (this often takes more than one review e.g. Nimrod MRA4 from 21 to 18 to 15 to 12 and so late as to be confused with a Norwegian Blue). Thus we achieve poor kit costing too much.
The civil servant at the top then gets a promotion/knighthood leaving his underlings with an unmanageable procurement and the frontline, literally, defenceless.
Thus, the possibility of effective defence procurement is ruled out.
PS Gordon, any chance of doing a PFI to extend Traitor's Gate to accomodate the number of spikes required? There's a non-declarable "loan" in it for you?
Maybe that was his price.
Maybe he knows just a little too much.
Maybe he'll be getting his knighthood in the New Year.
Idiot. No, not him Iain, you.
He doesn't leave the Civil Service until the end of the year, when his resignation actually comes into effect. Would you rather he sat on his arse getting paid for doing nothing for the month of December? No, me neither.
I am not sure this accurately reflects the situation? I understood that whilst Mr Gray resigned he would remain on full salary until his retirement. If he is not woprking towards earning this salary then I think this is in my interests.
I would prefer to know the arrangements of his resignation. did it come from him or was it a political decision to appease the publ;ic?
Iain
Outrage is somewhat milder than my voiced comment. If DC can `skewer` Broon and Co as to their memory loss and add that civil servants will be held responsible for failings such as is normal in the private sector. Crown immunity is a joke when measured against their salary and perks
JH
I don't see what you are getting indignant about. In my industry, when someone resigns they are usually sent on Gardening Leave so that they are out of the way until the end of their period of notice.
In this case Paul Gray is being given something useful to do for his last few weeks in the civil service, at no extra cost to the taxpayer.
Totally off topic, but I am sure we will all be pleased to know that we are bankrolling Xmas bonuses for all Northern Rock employees.
http://tinyurl.com/2bfbxe
Are we all turkeys now?
David Boothroyd, you are becoming so shrill and desperate you are almost beyond parody.
Why should the man at the top have his life ruined because of some 22 year old idiot who couldn't be bothered to follow the rules? If only that was the sole failing at a department that has been shown to suffer from systemic failings. One mistake can be understood or forgiven. Dozens of failures cannot be attributed to a 22-year-old who did what he was told.
It is interesting you believe nobody cares about the discs and nobody cares about the donations. The opinion polls beg to differ. It is about trust and accountability and Labour is showing it cannot be trusted and refuses to be accountable.
You may as well start getting used to the idea that the public has a way of determining for itself what it thinks is important. You can shout all you like and promote a legion of excuses for failure after failure, but lets face it, your solitary voice will have zero impact.
Does it not permeate to your brain that Lakshmi Mittal and Lord Sainsbury give more money to Labour than Lord Ashcroft gives to the Conservatives? Do you not recognise the scandal of taxpayers money being given to the Unions so they can afford to donate millions of pounds to the Labour Party? The term 'blinkered' does not come close to describing your degree of self denial. You really do need to reach out to that branch called reality.
@ Long D. Silver,
Given that he's admitted to disastrous failure in one key department, do you think he should be let loose on another? How much more damage can he be allowed to cause?
If his contract actually does state that he's in his salary at our expense until the end of the year (this particular year, perhaps?), that's not too long for him to sit on his arse at home contemplating the future on his inflated pension, is it?
Frankly I'd rather he took early retirement with immediate effect.
Yes Iain. Notice periods and gardening leave don't exist in the private sector. What a ill-informed post.
The only "complaint" can be that the Civil Service are getting him to do something useful rather than sitting on his arse for 6 months. Most would argue that this is rather a good use of state resources but obviously you disagree.
Either that or you think the public sector should be exempt from Employment law.
Greg
"I resigned from my job last Monday. Did I expect to be paid until the end of year?"
Don't know. Was it part of your contract? Because if it was the answer is yes. Possibly, civil servants should not have those contracts but as they do, the contracts have to be honoured. Are you suggesting otherwise?
What applies to civil servants does not apply to politicians.
Iain, this is a NONSENSE story and reflects how out of touch you are with both normal business parctice.
Gray, like any employee, had a notice period in his contract (I understand it was 8 weeks). He is compelled to work (and get paid for) his notice period, whether he resigned or was fired.
So it makes sense that he actually does some work for the government while he's getting paid, no? Otherwise the story would be 'Paul Gray gets paid to sit at home'.
Sometimes I'm baffled by the idiocy of the political classes...engage your brain before speaking next time, eh?
Also it is only speculation, but maybe he wasn't intending to retire at age 60? Age 60 is just the earliest he could do it. At the end of the year he will leave his job, and his income will reduce by about half.
I find David Boothroyd genuinely astonishing - he may well be right on his arithmetic, but what on earth does he think will be the consequnce in the country if Brown DOES hold on to power on a minority of the vote, after ten years of crooked, sleaze ridden power?
Oh, and David. I was down the pub last night. I live in solid labour ward, albeit of a southern town (so increasingly out of bounds for your party in parliamentary terms of course). The people surrounding me in that pub were the very people who voted for Blair in '97, in '01 and even, with gritted teeth, in '05.
The general sense in the pub was that Brown is a crook, and moreover an inept, charmless and unlucky one at that. People may well not care about the details of the disks or the donations, but they know a bunch of incompetent chancers when they see them.
But you are the master Psephologist of course, so you keep repeating your mantra to yourself. Who knows, it might even come true for you. But it be interesting to see what happens if it does.
One further thing. I can remember very clearly the Major.. whetever it was.. hesitate to call it a government really. And even then political wonks like you, but on the other side, were pontificating about how the Tories were "in for ever". Sound familiar?
No doubtthere will be a nice quango appointment for Mr Gray come January.
How easy it is to waste other people's money. Sigh.
David Boothroyd is like one of those cartoon characters who kep running when they are suspended in mid air . How long before he notices ?
Having a good day advising developers how Coucils will react to their plans David ?
" Pssst slip a few thou into Peter Hains back pocket and they`ll feel just fine about it Mr. Abrhams ...usual toast is it " Sod the tax payer " oo good drop of £400 fizz, must thank Mandy for the recommendation"
I must admit this is a bit of non story Iain. the absurd over-reward and feather bedding of the Public sector is an ongoing scandal but he is only doing three weeks work
I have had considerable sympathy for Brown & Darling on the missing in the post discs. I really don't see that they could be held responsible for it. Much of the problem is that the civil service is run by classicists who are computer illiterate, which is why every big government computer project has gone way over budget & been a mess. However this has been the case forever & thus not NuLabour's fault.
However there is no way that dressing ua kicking upstairs as a resignation could have taken place without the full agreement of Brown & Darling.
I presume s/he's a radical pacifist, as this would appear to rule out any possibility of effective defence procurement, among other things...
With papiermache armoured cars and endless equipment foul ups something seems to have ruled out effective defence procurement , the £15 billion dropped from the budget will rule it out a bit more but you are right .Noone thinks defence procurement is efficient but we don`t have alot of options.
I must say I am a bit disappointed with that he /she , I like to think the testosterone drips of the screen. Perhaps I should wear a dress and be a pre op lesbian..
david boothroyd at 11:27 AM -
Ha ha, what a funny guy!!! You're wasted here my friend, find a job on the stage.
Things are so bad under the current regime, even the immigrants and benefit claimants are going to think twice about voting Labour, when the money runs out to pay them and their bank details are available on-line to internet scammers. They have morals and standards just like everyone else!
How dare you insult these people? What gives you the moral right? Just because these voters are claiming support from the State doesn't mean that they will automatically approve criminal and corrupt acts by politicians. You're fooling yourself if you think otherwise.
David Boothroyd - you really are an amusing little poppet, aren't you.
Fancy making up all that silly tosh just to wind up everyone here ! What a waste of your time.
You really must get out more and go in search of a life.
"Racaille" is an understatement for this mob.
To david boothroyd at 11:27 AM-
Here's an exam question for you, all figures are courtesy of the Electoral Commission website:
Lord David Sainsbury of Turville has donated £8,516,000 to The Labour Party between between 13/1/2002 and 10/9/2007
Mr Laksmhi Mittal has donated £4,128,000 to The Labour Party between between 28/6/2001 and 22/1/2007
Lord Michael Ashcroft / Bearwood Corporate Services has donated £1,333,361.78 to The Conservative Party between between 26/3/2001 and 8/8/2007
Discuss.
I resigned from my job last Monday. Did I expect to be paid until the end of year?
But surely that is because Paul Gray was sacked from his previous job at HMRC, wasn't he? Whereas you resigned voluntarily from your job at 18 Doughty Street, didn't you?
There is a difference, isn't there?
vervet said...
"David Boothroyd - you really are an amusing little poppet, aren't you.
Fancy making up all that silly tosh just to wind up everyone here ! What a waste of your time.
You really must get out more and go in search of a life."
This is exactly what many said to him when he used to post similar stuff regularly on the uk political Usenet groups. It appears that he merely shifted sideways, rather than having the guts to face up to that challenge...
OT, why have Hindus not staged riots and violent protests over Matthew Corbett's "The Suttee Show", which blatantly mocks Hinduism by naming a glove puppet "Suttee" and having him consort with dog glove puppet Sweep, an unclean animal?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sooty
So what's new? It's just what we have all come to expect from this tradgedy of a government. Buggins Brown and his corrupt little gang make Putin look like an honest upright citizen. Even Chavez looks more principled...
"The Country Should Be Outraged"
And with that Iain Dale and Alan Partridge merged to become one...
The assistant chief plod Andy Hayman has resigned after allegded misuse of his credit card. One wonders where he'll resurface?
hitchenophile makes the most sense with 'common sense'.
hitchenophile [12.40] You say: "Gray, like any employee, had a notice period in his contract (I understand it was 8 weeks). He is compelled to work (and get paid for) his notice period, whether he resigned or was fired."
I detect that you are not an employment lawyer. No-one can be compelled to work (it's called slavery) and no-one can be compelled to draw a salary.
It would have been open to Gray, in law, to say, 'I am leaving my job forthwith and will forfeit any salary due to me from this day forth.' We all assumed that's what he had said. His insensitivity in accepting this new job (no doubt created especially for him) demonstrates his unsuitablity for any senior management position.
If Gus O'Donnell gave him this job without telling Gordon Brown he is a bloody fool. But then, who could pluck up courage to speak to Brown on any topic under the sun, just at the moment?
Excellent. Now I know how I should feel. Thank you.
Paul Gray is not honourable at all - he just shuffles over to anther post, I suspect preserving his Golden Pension into the bargain.
It should be clear that serious FUBARs by Civil Servants should result in the sack, sans pension.
That should make them sit up and pay attention!
I used to think that resigning because of gross incompetence meant you were out of the door pronto, and your salary etc stopped there and then, because you were DISGRACED.
Over the past few years, in both public and commercial spheres, it seems to mean that you cop a golden 'goodbye' handshake, a pension top-up, and another job in the fairly near future. And if certain NHS executives are anything to go by, having cocked up in one area, please feel free to cause mayhem in another.
I think that's a disgrace when it happens commercially, but at least the shareholders can complain.
I think it's a ***** disgrace when the taxpayers get taken for such a ********** ride in the public sector, and it is another huge reason why putting everything into the hands of the State (aka thieving *********s) is such a terrible philosophy.
I'd just like to add my voice to all those pointing out the utter twerpishness of both Iain's post, and Daivd Boothroyd's comment. Tories shouldn't be calling for contracts to be abrogated for political reasons; that way lies fascism. David Boothroyd shouldn't be. That way lies an increase in the average IQ.
david boothroyd said...
Nobody cares about the discs and nobody cares about the donations. It's just you lot, shouting at each other.
You couldn't be more wrong, people care very much about their data being scattered around with careless abandon. There seems to be total disregard for data security at the Inland Revenue - it is certainly not an isolated mistake. Disks going missing and data being allowed off of the premises on a contractor's laptop (they may have the original of the data back but many copies could have been made in the mean time). Data security should mean just that, no data downloaded from the system without rigorous proceedures being followed. The man at the top should be checking, it's what he's there for!
Here's my prediction (from two years ago I might add) "Gordon Brown will never lead the Labour party to an election victory".
This is a non-story. His severance terms required that he be paid until the end of the year (only one month, after all). He has chosen to work out tht period rather than spending it Christmas shopping. Good for him!
Iain's post was not twerpy - it was about Honour, and Responsibility, and Shame -
3 things this damn Government and some of its Civil Service pals know **** all about.
Iain resigned from 18DS?! What happened Muskie?
Judith :Iain's post was not twerpy - it was about Honour, and Responsibility, and Shame -
But a comment can be about anything whatever, from Jesus Christ to my left one, and still be, what this one was in my view, namely twerpish. I might be wrong, but not on the basis of your argument. Take a course in elementary logic, why don't you?
I don't understand the point of resigning when a junior makes a stupid mistake. You can't control what everyone does all the time. If every organisation did that, then no organisation would have any senior management, or indeed any managers.
Given that Labour have already lost their credibility and electability I doubt there's much else for Paul Gray to do.
NO ONE in government has ever spent a day working in the private sector where this would never happen. Could you imagine an incompetent executive staying on and earning 200k a year? No.
Ed, you are not very smart because Mr. Watt, Mr. Mendelson and Ms. Alexander are not civil servants. About Mr. Gray am I being forgetful or was he not a former Thatcher advisor? Another skilled Tory operative perhaps? That's what a Tory Government had as advisors, hence why the ERM disaster! Rather a disc-gate than another ERM-gate thank you very much.
Cox says said...
"NO ONE in government has ever spent a day working in the private sector where this would never happen."
Happens all the time. Your experience of the private sector must be very limited.
The comment left at 11:27 AM yesterday in my name was a fake, was not written by me and was not endorsed by me. I am grateful to Iain Dale for deleting it as soon as I alerted him to it. There are other recent comments in my name on other posts which are also faked.
Neil Craig said...
"I have had considerable sympathy for Brown & Darling on the missing in the post discs. I really don't see that they could be held responsible for it."
Oh yes they can. They insisted on pursuing privatisation and outsourcing. They were told exactly waht would happen and it has.
Don't be thinking that two discs 'missing in the post' is the extent of the problem. The miracle would be if there is any government data not in the hands of criminals. Do you really think international criminals spend their time walking the streets looking for bits of paper to steal information from? They get it more or less directly from the civil service. That's why identity theft is such a growth area.
Post a Comment