Extra £32k for Tayside boss was ‘good value for money’
Outgoing NHS Scotland boss defends tax-funded payout for disgraced chief
THE outgoing chief of NHS Scotland has defended a pay-off that saw the disgraced former boss of NHS Tayside bank £32,000 more than she was due, insisting it was “good value for money” for tax-payers.
Paul Gray said the payment of a £91,280 settlement to Lesley Mclay had been “let down by errors in the process” surrounding how it was signed off, but stressed the sum itself was “reasonable and represented good value for money” because it was less than the estimated cost of a possible legal battle over unfair dismissal.
Mr Gray’s defence comes days after former SNP health secretary Alex Neil accused NHS bosses of “total incompetence” over Ms Mclay receiving an extra £32,105 when her notice period was doubled from three to six months without the approval of NHS Tayside’s Remuneration Committee.
The health board also mistakenly paid Ms Mclay £19,135 in pension contributions linked to her notice period, a sum which Audit Scotland said “should not be paid” but which NHS Tayside is now attempting to claw back.
Mr Gray, who is due to step down as chief executive of NHS Scotland in February after five years in the post, said: “Audit Scotland said the steps taken to reach the settlement were reasonable but there were errors in the process.
“The error in the process, which was the failure to go through the Remuneration Committee, has been put right – albeit retrospectively.
“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
unsuccessful 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.”
Ms Mclay was ousted in April after The Herald revealed NHS Tayside had used millions of pounds in charitable donations for general NHS spending.
A total of £3.6 million was taken from its endowment fund in 2014, months after Ms Mclay was appointed, with the bulk of it spent on IT services.
A report published by Audit Scotland on December 6 revealed she had officially departed in July on a package that included a payment of £64,211 in lieu of six months’ notice, even though the notice period in her contract was only three months.
Audit Scotland noted the switch from three to six months was made following discussions between senior figures at NHS Tayside and Shirley Rogers, the Scottish Government’s Director of Health Workforce, and representatives from the Central Legal Office. Ms Mclay was then paid an extra £32,105 but has no obligation to repay the sum.
The Audit Scotland report noted: “Any extension of the chief executive’s notice period to six months should have been explicitly approved by the board’s remuneration committee. ”
Giving evidence to Holyrood’s Audit Committee last Thursday, NHS Tayside’s chairman John Brown said that he believed the approach taken by the board “was the right thing to avoid a drawn-out legal process which would have cost the public purse a significantly larger sum”.
Mr Gray said his reaction to revelations of NHS Tayside’s misuse of charity cash “was one of disappointment”, adding: “I think we’ve worked hard to establish the facts and I know the current leadership of NHS Tayside have sought to put right the use of the funds that wasn’t appropriate, and we’ve checked with all the other health boards to ensure that there are no similar instances.
“But I accept, as the chief executive of NHS Scotland, that the buck does stop with me. I don’t think you can take a job like this and then try to dodge it.”