Bonuses all round - is the MoD just following MPs?

By David Higgerson on Nov 12, 09 11:08 PM

Every now and again, a comment in defence of a Government policy inadvertently tells us a whole lot more than a highly-paid spin doctor intended.

Take, for example, today's story than bonuses worth £47million have been paid out to Ministry of Defence staff.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

An MoD spokesman said the pay awards were met from within salary budget and would have "no impact on the operational or equipment budget".

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," he said.

So are we into the sort of guaranteed bonus territory so reviled of the banking world? Or are we in a "we'll keep pay rises down if we give you bonuses instead?"

Some papers report the bonuses are "performance related" but, surely 50,000 out of 85,000 civil servants in the MoD can't all be perfoming so well to warrant a bonus?

If we assume they are performing so well, why do so many MoD related matters go wrong. Name any procurement programme and it runs late, and over budget.

The PCS union, however, let the cat out of the bag by saying the bonuses were in lieu of bigger pay rises. That simply stinks.

And to argue the bonus pot doesn't have an impact on equipment is nonsense.

That's £47million which could have been put towards equipment.

The only people the MoD and the PCS fool when they say it had no impact are themselves.