SHELL SHOCK
£120k EXTRA for defence boss who spent BILLIONS on a tank that deafens soldiers
A DEFENCE chief got a £30,000 bonus on top of his £280,000 salary – despite being accused of wasting billions on faulty tanks. Sir Simon Bollom, the boss of defence equipment and support, was also paid £300,000 last year. Ministry of Defence figures show ex-RAF officer Sir Simon, 61, has received £120,000 in bonus payments since 2018.
His organisation is in charge of buying all the armed forces’ ships, submarines and aircraft, including the £5.5bn Ajax tanks troops cannot use because it deafens them. A Commons watchdog has previously said the Ministry of Defence department is “broken”. MPs on the Public Accounts
Committee said the team, based in Bristol, “continually fails to learn from its mistakes”.
Colonel Richard Kemp, an ex-Infantry Commander, said: “Bonuses for public sector employees in the
MoD should only be given out sparingly, especially as they’re usually reserved for highlevel civil servants.
“They should only be used to recognise contributions above and beyond the contractual remit of the individual.
“Given the abysmal failure of Ajax, it seems that a bonus for the person responsible might be over-generous use of taxpayers’ funds.”
The payments were agreed by MoD bosses even though 13 of the largest projects were running behind by a cumulative total of 21 years – including the Ajax armoured vehicle, which was delayed due to excessive noise and vibration.
An MoD spokesman told us: “Performance-related payments are based on meeting a number of challenging targets alongside assessment from the DE&S Board Chair and MoD Permanent Secretary.”