Councillors have criticised a plan by a combined authority to give some of its senior officers bonuses for meeting performance targets – with one labelling it a ‘mistake’.
Members of the Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority’s (GLCCA) discussed the authority’s proposed pay policy for some of its senior officers, including the chief executive and other chief officers such as the monitoring officer and section 73 officer (finance officer), writes Local Democracy Reporter Oliver Castle.
GLCCA members were told that these senior officers would receive bonuses if they meet their key performance indicators (KPIs) – with officials saying that this helps the authority to attract the best people for the job.
But some councillors argued that these bonuses are unnecessary and said that people shouldn’t be rewarded for meeting their targets.
At a meeting last week Karl Wilson said: “What we’re saying is that we’ve got a chief executive who won’t perform to his top ability unless we put a bonus in front.
“I just don’t get it. I absolutely don’t get that.
“If we can’t have a chief executive who performs to the best of his ability for the authority in public service, we need to get rid of him and get another one.
“It is the same with the senior officers.
“On those grounds, do not agree with giving bonuses to those highly paid staff that are supposed to be self-motivated, inspirational, leading, driving the performance of the whole authority and the whole agenda.
“I think it’s a mistake.”
Coun Matthew Boles questioned why the targets were only being offered to senior officers and not all GLCCA officials.
He said: “I get that answer in the corporate world, I don’t agree with that in these situations.
“It still doesn’t answer my question about why it’s only available to the highest employee.
“If we’re looking at the KPIs that the chief executive hits, let’s be honest that’s going to have been delivered by other members of staff.
“Why are they not eligible for those bonuses? I can’t support a policy that discriminates against employees in that manner.”
In response, Debbie Simpson, interim section 73 officer, said: “The aspiration of the mayor and the members of the combined authority in the appointments committee was absolutely to aspire to having a high-performing combined authority and to set the right environment to be able to do that through both recruitment practices and performance indicators.
“That has been an aspiration to bring an element of the private sector into working in the local government world.
“That is the aspiration and that is the thinking behind it.”
The proposed policy will be considered again at a GLCCA meeting on April 29 following feedback from councillors.
