Ulster Unionists slam 'surprising' arrangements around Jayne Brady pay rise - after scathing report on civil service

Steve Aiken has also highlighted the fact that Jayne Brady has no line manager, and said questions need to be asked about how the “most powerful civil servant in the country” can be held to account.

Last year, the civil service confirmed that nobody had signed off the performance of the head of the civil service (HOCS) as satisfactory – the criteria for a salary bump across the organisation.

Now, Finance Minister John O’Dowd says that the pay rise, which took Ms Brady’s salary to £290,000, did not go through the standard appraisal process for civil servants, because her “position is unique”.

A spokesperson for Ms Brady’s office said that civil service (NICS) performance policies are being reviewed – and will include consideration of the HOCS role.

In January, a report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) found that NICS has “not delivered the scale and pace of reform necessary to demonstrate value for money in its workforce and people management”.

It also found that staff sick leave is rising – with an annual cost to the taxpayer of close to £50 million.

Last year, the News Letter revealed that the cost of staffing Ms Brady’s own office has rocketed, with both the cost to the taxpayer and the number of people employed to run the office almost doubling under her tenure.

Earlier this month, Mr Aiken wrote to Mr O’Dowd, asking him to set out any criteria by which HOCS performance could have been assessed as satisfactory under NICS HR guidance, resulting in a remuneration package increase of £30,000 to £290,000.

The minister said: “The Civil Service Performance Management policy applies to all staff, including the Senior Civil Service (SCS), but it does not prescribe the practical application of the policy to the HOCS role.

“The HOCS position is unique: the role has no line-management structure or reporting/countersigning officer to undertake the standard appraisal process provided for under the policy. Accordingly, the extant SCS performance process has not been applied to the HOCS role.

“The Performance Management policy is currently under review and part of that review will include consideration of performance management arrangements for the HOCS role, while safeguarding the political impartiality of the civil service.”

Mr Aiken told the News Letter that the minister’s response “raises more questions than it answers”.

“It is remarkable that HOCS position has no line management and that it’s not subject to a standard appraisal process is surprising. Mechanisms, for senior roles in the government, of appraisal and performance management are there, including from the Cabinet secretary or from senior retired civil servants at the permanent secretary level, should be the bare minimum.

“How an award of around £30,000 can be made for performance-related pay, when parts of the NICS departmental accounts have been disclaimed as well as qualified, with reform and delivery of the civil service having been slammed by the NIAO and the Covid inquiry, with no ability to provide corrective guidance to HOCS, is extraordinary.

“We often talk about politicians taking responsibility and being accountable, we should be asking how we can hold to account the most powerful civil servant in the country,” the South Antrim MLA said.

A spokesperson for the Executive Office said: “The Civil Service Performance Management policy is currently under review and will include consideration of performance management arrangements for the HOCS role.”

Last year, the Belfast Telegraph reported that Ms Brady had been given the hike in her salary and pension payments, but that Stormont officials would not say who had approved it.

Over a week later, the newspaper reported that NICS finally admitted that no one had judged HOCS’s performance ‘satisfactory’.