The top public sector executives, including finance directors, saw double digit growth in their pay over the last year, at a time when the government is reining in civil service wages.
A survey by the Taxpayers Alliance found that the 300 best-paid public sector executives saw remuneration – including bonuses – rise by 12.8% over the last year, their average remuneration totalling £237,564.
'At a time when the Government is rightly aiming to restrain public sector pay increases to 2%, these top officials shouldn’t be hiking their pay by six times as much,' said Taxpayers' Alliance chief executive Matthew Elliot.
Network Rail, treated as a government-run organisation in the research, had the highest-paid public sector FD. Group FD Ron Henderson, in at number 14, was paid £578,000, a fall of 15.4% from £683,000 a year earlier.
Other top-paid FDs included those from the Royal Mail, BNFL, Olympic Delivery Authority, and the BBC.
The Department for Work and Pensions, which has had its audit qualified for 18 years in a row, saw finance director general John Codling's remuneration leap by 30% to £202,000, taking him above HM Revenue & Custom's chairman Paul Gray, who received £198,000.
Gray was not HMRC's highest-paid executive. That honour went to former CIO and now COO Steve Lamey, who received £240,900 and came in 71st place.
HMRC director of communications, Chris Hopson, was paid £155,000. Director general Dave Hartnett was paid £150,000.
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