November 12, 2009
Families of servicemen condemn £47m bonuses for MoD staff as ‘obscene’Families of servicemen killed or injured in Afghanistan and Iraq have been angered by the disclosure that Ministry of Defence civil servants were awarded more than £47 million this year in performance-related bonuses.
Hazel Hunt, whose 21-year-old son died in Helmand province in August, described the bonuses as “obscene”. Families said the money would be better spent on kit for frontline troops.
In a written reply to Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, Kevan Jones, a junior Defence Minister, revealed that MoD staff received bonuses totalling £47,283,853 in the seven months from April to October. Last year £52.9 million was paid in bonuses.
Some 50,000 staff would share the bonus, the MoD said, on average receiving less than £1,000 each. Two senior officials were believed to be in line for payouts of £17,000, which is more than a year’s basic pay for a private soldier who is not on an operational tour. “These pay awards are met from within salary budget and have no impact on the operational or equipment budget,” a spokesman said.
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Officials figures show that the MoD has paid out £287 million in bonuses since Britain went to war in Iraq.
Mrs Hunt, 50, whose son Private Richard Hunt died in August after being caught in an explosion while on patrol in Helmand with the 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh, said that the civil servants “are not delivering and I think it is obscene they have got such bonuses while our troops are being short-changed, not only in equipment but also in the fact that my son was barely on £17,000 a year.
“When you consider the risk they are running of being killed ... how many civil servants would volunteer for that?”
Private Darren Bonner, 31, was killed in 2007 by a landmine explosion in southern Afghanistan, where he was serving with the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment. His mother, Christine, said: “It makes me cross to think we are fighting like crazy to get them the special equipment and kit they need when people are getting money for old rope.”
Phil Cooper, whose badly injured son Jamie received £200,000 in compensation for wounds received in Iraq, said that news of the bonuses had left him “laughing with astonishment”.
“What exactly have they done to earn that?” asked Mr Cooper, 50, of Bristol. “That money might not buy much in the way of helicopters but it could buy a lot in way of personal armour for troops on the ground.”
Last night Dr Fox said: “At a time when the department is reeling from the Nimrod report, many in the Armed Forces will be aghast that bonuses are being paid on the basis of ‘outstanding performance’. This will only increase the view that the Armed Forces and the MoD administration are hugely out of balance.”
Source:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6913579.eceSame thing is happening here.
