£32k overpaid in golden goodbye was ‘good value’, NHS chief claims
AN overpayment of £32,000 to the former boss of a cashstrapped health board was actually ‘good value’ for taxpayers, according to the head of NHS Scotland.
Paul Gray said a £91,280 settlement paid to Lesley McLay was ‘reasonable’ because it was less than the potential cost of a legal battle over unfair dismissal.
Mrs McLay was forced to quit her post as chief executive of NHS Tayside after a financial scandal. But the board mistakenly paid her in lieu of six months’ notice instead of the three months in her contract.
Mr Gray’s comments came days after former SNP health secretary Alex Neil accused NHS Tayside bosses of ‘total incompetence’ over the £32,105 overpayment to Mrs McLay.
The health board also mistakenly paid her £19,135 in pension contributions linked to her notice period, a sum which Audit Scotland said ‘should not be paid’ and which NHS Tayside is attempting to claw back.
Mr Gray, who will step down from his post as chief executive of NHS Scotland in February, said: ‘Audit Scotland said the steps taken to reach the settle- ment were reasonable but there were errors in the process.
‘What Audit Scotland also said was that the total costs of the negotiated settlement to NHS Tayside were less than the Central Legal Office’s estimate of the cost of fighting an unsuc- cessful legal case, so what they did was, according to Audit Scotland, reasonable and value for money.
‘In that sense, the failure to follow due process was not right and I’m glad they put it right, albeit retrospectively. But it’s disappointing that a settlement that was reasonable and represented good value for money, which would be very important features to me as the accountable officer, fell short in terms of process.’
A report published by Audit Scotland on December 6 revealed that Mrs McLay had departed in July on a package that included £64,211.52 in lieu of six months’ notice.
Audit Scotland noted that the switch from three to six months was made following discussions between bosses at NHS Tayside and the Scottish Government.
Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs criticised Mr Gray’s comments, saying: ‘The notion that these overpayments are anything other than very poor value for money for the taxpayer is absolutely staggering.’
NHS Tayside chairman John Brown said: ‘We believe the approach we took was the right thing to avoid a drawnout legal process which would have cost the public purse a significantly larger sum.’