Incompetent civil servants profit from job-for-life culture

Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent
15.09.09

Bungling senior civil servants are escaping the sack because of the job-for-life culture in Whitehall, MPs warned today.

They said that sanctions for poorly-performing mandarins are "far weaker" than in local government or the private sector.

The influential all-party Commons public accounts committee said failing senior civil servants seemed insulated against losing their jobs compared with their town hall counterparts.

Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, the head of the 500,000-strong civil service, admitted that the high cost of severance payments could be a barrier to dismissing senior staff not delivering on their responsibilities.

They can receive a lump sum of two years' pay if they take voluntary redundancy after 20 years in Whitehall and three years' salary if the redundancy is compulsory.

"We see no evidence that senior leaders in poorly-performing departments are likely to lose their jobs in the way that has become established in local government," the committee wrote.

Conservative committee member Richard Bacon added: "Senior civil servants often seem able to get away with mistakes that would cost most people their jobs."

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