Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

PMO paid more than $4.1 million to departing employees

OTTAWA — The Prime Minister’s Office coughed up $4.1 million in severance and separation pay over the first seven years of Stephen Harper’s tenure for 196 departing PMO employees, according to government documents.
The high turnover rate in the PMO between 2006 and 2013 saw between roughly one-third and one-fifth of staff leave each year, often with both severance and discretionary separation payments.

Approximately $57 million in salary was paid between 2006 and 2013 to staff in the Prime Minister’s Office. The office ranged in size from 82 to 105 employees during that time. The $4.1 million taxpayers shouldered for exiting PMO employees was part of an overall total of $31 million in severance and separation pay that shelled out to staff in all ministers’ offices since the Conservative government won power in 2006.
The payouts to political staff in the PMO and ministers’ offices came as the Conservative government spoke of the need to rein in lucrative public sector benefits. Many Conservative MPs had harshly criticized severance and separation payouts to departing PMO staff during the former Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.
Of the $4.1 million, more than $1.5 million was for severance payments automatically paid to the 196 departing PMO employees between 2006-07 and 2012-13 — or an average payment of about $7,800 each — regardless of whether they were laid off, fired, resigned on their own, or retired.
Another $2.4 million was discretionary separation payments for 93 departing PMO staff between 2006-07 and 2012-13 — an average payment of about $26,300 each — according to documents and figures obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin using the access to information law.
The largest total PMO severance payments came in 2010-11, when more than $402,000 was paid to 31 departing employees from a staff of 99, according to figures obtained by Rubin. The largest total PMO separation payments also came in 2010-11, when more than $613,000 was paid to 21 staff who left the Prime Minister’s Office.
There is some expectation that there will be regular turnover in the PMO and ministers’ offices because the positions are not public service jobs. Rather, they are political jobs and are subject to much more uncertainty.
Taxpayers also were on the hook for additional combined severance and separation pay of approximately $129,000 for 2013-14 (up to early August 2013). It’s unknown whether this included  severance owed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s former chief of staff, Nigel Wright.
Harper said Wright was “dismissed” in May 2013 over his $90,000 payment to Sen. Mike Duffy to cover inappropriate Senate expenses. The Prime Minister’s Office has acknowledged the former chief of staff was paid the severance he was owed under government guidelines, but has refused to say how much it was.
Jason MacDonald, the prime minister’s director of communications, said the rules and practices for severance and separation pay in the PMO are similar to those for aides working in the offices of MPs, senators and the Opposition leader.
Separation pay is paid out at the discretion of federal ministers when an employee’s services are ended, meaning Harper would have had final say on the $2.4 million in separation payments to the 93 employees who left the PMO, including from senior positions. Harper has had four chiefs of staff and eight communication directors since winning power in 2006.
The separation pay is designed to “compensate for possible loss of earnings resulting from an often unpredictable and, at times, abrupt termination of employment,” according to federal Treasury Board rules.
Ministers can authorize up to six months’ separation pay for a period of service of four years or more, and up to four months pay for service of less than four years. Separation pay of one month per year of service is considered “reasonable,” according to Treasury Board rules.
Separate documents tabled in the House of Commons show the federal government paid out approximately $31 million in severance and separation pay to political staff in all ministers’ offices between April 2006 and February 2014.
By far, the largest severance and separation payments during that time were in the Privy Council Office, which includes the PMO.
In total, the Privy Council Office paid out more than $6.1 million in severance and discretionary separation pay between April 2006 and February 2014.
Twitter.com/jasonfekete
Total severance and separation payments from April 2006 to February 2014 to departing political “exempt staff” in federal ministers’ offices (selected departments):
- Privy Council Office (includes the Prime Minister’s Office): $2.6 million in severance, $3.5 million in separation pay.
- Foreign Affairs and International Trade (now Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada): $947,600 in severance, $1.7 million in separation pay.
- Industry: $822,800 in severance, $1.4 million in separation pay.
- Natural Resources: $1.2 million in severance, $252,600 in separation pay.
- Environment: $1.3 million in severance, $485,100 in separation pay.
Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: Jason Fekete

No comments:

Post a Comment