Overpayed and Underworked

http://www.lep.co.uk/news/Council-boss-told-to-justify.4579193.jp

This link triggered a response from me. The salaries of company executives, particularly in the banking sector, but also Government, has always been at the centre of much debate and scrutiny by the media. The main questions keep reoccuring; why do they deserve that much money? what are they doing to earn it?

The simple matter of it all is that they get away with it. In the article linked, the Lancashire County Council boss Ged Fitzgerald is reported to earn £190,000 a year, making him the 10th wealthies politician in England. Gordon Brown, our Prime Minister, only - I say only for the purpose of this point - earns £188,848 a year. The salary in question is three times that of the average MP salary. This begs the question; why is a county council leader deserving of more money than the man who runs the country?

This doesn't happen in business. You wouldn't find a lower positioned manager earning more than the Chief Executive, it's just not in keep with the hierarchy of position and job responsibility.

The only positive from all this for Lancashire is that it has retained its four-star rating from the Audit Commission watchdogs, but this was achieved before he came and so its retension isn't exactly unatainable unless you pay someone £190,000.

Taxpayers money is going to these men in a time where money is hard to come by and a lot of people don't feel this is value for money. The public pay for a service. If they don't receive it then this is a breach of the faith the public has in their Government, and as such the person responsible for this breach should be held accountable.