£80m pay bonanza for outsourcing bosses

On the anniversary of the collapse of Carillion, we reveal...

Britain’s five largest listed Government contractors have paid their chief executives more than £80m since 2010 – despite years of shoddy performance.

On the anniversary of the collapse of Carillion, Mail analysis reveals the heads of interserve, serco, Mitie, G4s and Capita raked in a combined £81.2m between 2010 and 2017.

the findings come as analysis by the GMB union of tussell data shows the value of public sector outsourcing contracts rocketed 53pc last year to £95bn.

rehana azam, national secretary at the GMB, said: ‘What this shows is despite the tragic fiasco of Carillion, the Government hasn’t learned its lesson.’

the crisis was preceded by years of excess in the boardrooms. several of the outsourcing bosses were removed or resigned over the past decade after mis- steps that put their companies in financial distress. and most of their successors have taken smaller salaries or waived bonuses, meaning the chief executives who made the most mess have walked away with the most cash, taking home around £46m of the £81m total.

From construction work on Hs2 to providing school meals, outsourcers take on public contracts in a wide range of industries paid for by taxpayers.

G4s has paid its bosses the most out of the five so far this decade. the security and services firm has shelled out £21.4m to chief executives nick Buckles and ashley almanza. Buckles left after two major failures, with G4s scrapping a £5bn bid for catering and cleaning business iss in 2011 and failing to supply enough security guards for the 2012 London Olympics, meaning the army was called in.

interserve paid its bosses the least, doling out £10.7m from 2010 to 2017. shortly before Christmas it conditionally agreed a refinancing plan with its lenders to avoid going bust and merged two of its divisions.

adrian ringrose ran interserve between 2003 and 2017 and bagged £10.2m in pay between 2010 and 2017. He was the architect of a diversification strategy that included a move into the energy-from-waste sector, which has since become an albatross around the company’s neck.

serco paid its chief executives the second-biggest sum, spending £19.9m on its top brass, followed by Mitie which spent nearly £15m on the salaries of long- standing chief executive ruby McGregor-smith and her successor, Phil Bentley.

serco boss Chris Hyman, who was paid almost £9m between 2010 and 2013, left after a string of corporate embarrassments.

Capita spent £14.1m on its bosses, according to its annual reports. andy Parker took over in 2014, but was ousted in 2017 after announcing a string of profit warnings. During that time he was paid more than £6m.

Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre think-tank, said: ‘the boards of the companies in question, and the policymakers who awarded them their contracts, have been made to look ridiculous.

‘the argument that this represents value for money or is necessary to deliver better services is risible.’