The bunglers of Whitehall who are sharing £128MILLION bonuses

Civil servants were paid more than £128million in performance bonuses last year.

The Tories, who obtained the figures, said the scale of the payments showed the Government is running a 'something for nothing' culture in Whitehall.

Shadow Treasury chief secretary Philip Hammond said taxpayers would be 'horrified' by the scale of sums paid out at a time when the Government's performance is under fire.

A breakdown of awards under the Civil Service performance pay scheme showed the average bonus paid to senior officials in most departments was more than £7,000.

The top earners were officials in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, where senior staff received payments averaging more than £11,000.

Their colleagues in the Home Office, which was declared 'unfit for purpose' two years ago by the then Home Secretary John Reid, received an average of £9,000 each, as did those from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Staff at the Treasury racked up £21.7million, of which more than £19million went to those at HM Revenue and Customs, the agency which lost discs containing the personal data of more than 25million people late last year.

The performance pay scheme was introduced into the Whitehall pay structure as a way of rewarding good performance and penalising failing employees.

Instead of an across-the-board increase, nearly 500,000 officials are assessed on their individual performance and those who exceed set objectives get more money.

The figures, which were obtained by the Tories through Parliamentary questions, showed the Ministry of Defence paid out the most in bonus payments in last year  -  £41.3million.

Bonuses to staff at the Department for Work and Pensions totalled £36.6million, including £3.7million to workers at the soontobe- scrapped Child Support Agency.

Civil servants at the Home Office got £5.7million, staff at the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (formerly DTI) were given £4.4million, and those at Defra received £3.9million.

Mr Hammond said: 'Many families finding themselves squeezed between stagnant earnings and soaring living costs will be horrified by the use of £128million of taxpayers' money to pay bonuses to civil servants.

'With Government failing on so many fronts, this looks like a " something for nothing" culture.'

The revelation that officials are earning bonuses will raise eyebrows among critics of the Government's performance.

Gordon Brown has been battling claims that public sectors are failing to deliver on the pledges of improvement Labour championed in three General Elections.

Civil servants are already the target of resentment for the relative job security they enjoy compared with the private sector, and their generous non- contributory pension.

Last month it emerged that Home Office staff spent almost £11million on taxis, hotels and flights last year. The bill  -  picked up by the taxpayer  -  has rocketed by almost 50 per cent in three years.