Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fatcats still raking it in as 20,000 face axe
AS Carillion hurtled towards collapse putting 20,000 jobs at risk, fatcat bosses continued to line their pockets while being handed public cash by their Tory cronies.
And once again the taxpayer is left to pick up the bill for another failed privatised firm in a bid to rescue the public services it had contracts with, such as schools, prisons and hospitals.
Blundering chief executive Richard Howson still gets £55,000 a month basic salary – even though he quit last July after the first of two dire profit warnings.
And it is believed the 49-year-old will still be paid a £660,000 salary and £28,000 in benefits until October, despite Carillion going into liquidation yesterday.
Other former chiefs are also to pocket wages for months to come – as ordinary staff face being dumped with nothing.
There was fury last night over the fact executives at the construction giant, which was involved in the HS2 rail line, were paid so much, despite knowing they were in financial trouble as they were handed government contracts. And there will be even more anger when staff who face the axe and a 20% cut in their pensions find out bosses protected their bonuses before Carillion went bust.
They changed the wording of its pay policy in 2016 to make it harder for investors to claw back any cash paid out if it ran into trouble.
A Unite union spokesman said: “This is a classic case of rewards for failure.
“The people at the top of Carillion were apparently lining their pockets while much of their workforce weren’t receiving meaningful pay increases and forced to live a hand-to-mouth existence.
“Taxpayers’ money appears to be siphoned off into private boardrooms.” Even the Institute of Directors turned on the greedy bosses.
The group’s Roger Barker said: “Today’s outcome suggests effective governance was lacking at Carillion, and we must now consider if the board and shareholders have exercised appropriate oversight prior to the collapse.
“There are some worrying signs. The relaxation of clawback conditions for executive bonuses in 2016 appears in retrospect to be highly inappropriate.
“It does no good to the reputation of UK business when top managers appear to benefit in spite of the collapse of the organisations they are responsible for.
“It may be necessary for government to consider how it can better monitor the robustness of governance at contractors.”
Howson, who lives in a £1.2million farmhouse near Skipton, North Yorks, raked in more than £6million in pay and perks during his five years at the firm.
That included nearly £600,000 in