Ministry of Defence officials paid £47 million in bonuses
Civil servants at the Ministry of Defence have been paid £47 million in performance bonuses this year, it can be disclosed.
Ministry of Defence officials paid £47 million in bonuses - Telegraph
By Rebecca Lefort and James Kirkup
Published: 10:00PM GMT 11 Nov 2009
A total of 232 British service personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001
The figure, which covers just the first seven months of the current financial year, has been revealed as the Government faces charges of failing to provide British troops with adequate support and equipment on the front line in Afghanistan.
Additional bonus payments for the rest of year could take the total above the £53 million paid out to MoD officials in 2008/09.
There are 85,000 civil servants at the MoD, one for every two active troops. Around 50,000 of them will get a performance bonus this year.
The MoD has claimed that the bonuses would average less than £1,000, but some officials will get much bigger payments.
Last year, the department had senior 95 employees who were paid salaries of more than £100,000; and the average bonus for a senior civil servant in the department was £8,000.
An Army private can be paid as little as £16,681, with a £2,380 bonus for serving in Afghanistan.
The disclosures come as British troops are dying in Afghanistan at a rate not seen since the Falklands war, and polls show voters are turning against the mission.
A total of 232 British service personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001. Commanders have said that some of those deaths could have been averted if there had been more helicopters available to British forces.
The MoD says that bonuses are paid to officials for exceptional performance, yet the department has faced repeated criticism over its mismanagement of major defence projects and its failure to deliver enough helicopters to Afghanistan.
The bonus payments have risen sharply even as MoD’s record has come in for growing criticism. In 2003/04, total bonus payments were £24.9 million.
The £47 million paid out so far this year would be pay for 47,000 sets of body armour, 26,111 SA80 A2 assault rifles or 156 Ridgeback armoured vehicles which help protect troops against roadside bombs.
Last night, as Gordon Brown continues to face intense pressure over his treatment of the Armed Forces. the bonus figures drew criticism of the Government.
The figures were revealed in the Commons following questions from Liam Fox, the Conservative shadow defence secretary, who said the bonus payments would anger service personnel.
"Many in the Armed Forces will be aghast that bonuses are being paid on the basis of outstanding performance," Dr Fox said. "This will only increase the view that the Armed Forces and the MoD administration are hugely out of balance."
Ministers awarded the Armed Forces a 2.8 per cent pay rise this year, meaning a private soldier is now paid between £16,681 and £25,887.
Soldiers deployed to Afghanistan receive a tax-free “operational allowance” worth £2,380 and a Longer Separation Allowance worth at least £1,194. The MoD says that means a private soldier deploying on his first operation is paid at least £20,255.
Earlier this year, The Daily Telegraph revealed that Britain has more military bureaucrats for every active serviceman than any of its allies.
Ministers have promised to cut the number of officials at the MoD head office by a quarter. The Conservatives say they will reduce MoD bureaucracy by a third.
Last month, an MoD review of defence procurement found that the department has overspent its equipment budget by £35 billion yet is still putting British troops on the frontline at risk by failing to provide the right kit
And earlier this month an independent inquiry found that years of incompentence and cost-cutting by MoD officials had contributed to the crash of an RAF Nimrod in Afghanistan in 2006, killing 14 British service personnel.
Earlier this week, Mr Brown was confronted by Jacqui Janes, whose son Jamie Janes died in Afghanistan last month. Mrs Janes told the Prime Minister that her son died because there was no helicopter available to take him to a field hospital. Mr Brown has promised a full investigation into the incident.
The widow of an RAF serviceman killed in Afghanistan last night criticised the Government over the equipment available to the troops. At the end of an inquest into the death of Senior Aircraftman Gary Thompson, 51, his widow Jacqui Thompson said British forces in Afghanistan are having to cope with “limited resources".
Reg Keys whose son, Lance Corporal Tom Keys, was once of six Royal Military Police killed in Iraq in June 2003, also criticised the MoD bonus awards.
He said: "They are trying to run the Armed Forces on a shoestring, but still pay their own employees huge bonuses."
Col Bob Stewart, the former commander of United Nations forces in Bosnia, said: “I am absolutely staggered. No civil servant should be getting any kind of a bonus when our country is broke and our troops are fighting for their lives.”
An MOD spokesman said: “These pay awards are met from within salary budget and have no impact on the operational or equipment budget. The awards were given to around 50,000 civil servants resulting in an average payment of less than £1,000.
“The vast majority of these awards were paid in August as part of previously agreed pay deals, so we are not expecting this year's total to increase significantly.”
Britain has 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, and Mr Brown has authorised the deployment of another 500.
President Barack Obama is also considering a military request for another 40,000 US troops. The request was made in September, and the president’s delay has caused frustration in the British government.
In the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Brown said that Mr Obama would make an announcement on troops “in the next few days.”
But the White House insisted that the decision is still "weeks and not days" away.