The Pension DeaL, 2011

THE headline — “Inquiry after fire chief retires with £ 500,000 payout then gets job back.”

Sweeney retired from the fire service at 50 with a lump sum as part of his pension deal, then returned to his £ 150,000- a- year job the following month.

Scotland’s spending watchdog, Audit Scotland, later criticised the arrangement and said the public could not have faith in Strathclyde Fire & Rescue Joint Board.

If you’re expecting apologies and contrition, you’ll have a long wait. The Chief comes out fighting.

You got a lot of stick over that deal, Brian. Coming back to your highlypaid job after retiring with that lump sum made huge headlines. How did you feel about that?

“I feel much of that focus was regrettable,” he says.

“Someone of a more paranoid nature might think Audit Scotland had an agenda. They were targeting someone and perhaps had other motives for raising their concerns in their report.”

Motives such as what, then?

“I couldn’t possibly comment,” he says, cryptically. “Look. My pension arrangements are no different from any other firefighter in Strathclyde Fire & Rescue.

“My retirement and re- employment

is no different than hundreds of staff in the civil service, thousands of staff across the public sector in Scotland,” he thunders.

OK. So why did you get singled out then?

“That would be a fair question. All I can say is there are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of public sector staff across the length and breadth of Scotland who have been re- employed on the same basis as I have.”

He’s on a roll and he isn’t for backing down.

“Listen. My board were also criticised for allowing me to retire and be re- employed in circumstances where they didn’t want to hire a new chief 18 months before they were moving to a single force for two good reasons.

“They would have had to pay a new chief. Then they would then have had to pay him redundancy.”

I’m an argumentative sort. Technically, I venture, they wouldn’t have to pay redundancy for a short- term contract of 18 months.

“To get the calibre of person for chief, they would have to pay it,” he retorts.

“So they’re paying a new chief on a fixed- term contract, redundancy, they’ve got to pay him a pension, a pension they’ll have to pay for another 30 years. And they’re already paying Sweeney’s pension.

“And it’s sizeable. So they have to pay another chief’s pension too? That’s not best value.”

He’s animated, and clearly feels slighted by the stick he got.

A lot of people are going through a hard time, losing their jobs and struggling to make ends meet. Did he feel any guilt at all about his pension deal?

“None whatsoever. No, no, no,” he asserts. “I’m a firefighter, I think I’ve been a good firefighter and for my whole life I paid in 11% of my earnings. I’m not taking a penny more or a penny less than I’m entitled to.”

He’s not finished.

“I’ve nothing to reproach myself for and if anyone says do you feel sorry for taking what you’re entitled to — no.

“Do I feel I’ve taken more than I deserve? No.

“If I worked in the private sector would we be having this discussion? No.

“If I was in the private sector, would I be getting paid the wages I’d be getting paid? No. I don’t wear sackcloth, I will never wear sackcloth and they got me cheap,” he roars. “There’s the truth.”

But he’s not finished yet. He obviously broods about my line of questioning, because he returns to it later.

“Another thing. The entire brigade was audited by Audit Scotland in March last year. The outcome was they judged us as superb. That was the word they used. Su- perb,” he repeats. “Hardly seems consistent with an organisation that does funny things with pensions. It was a Best Value Audit and they said we were a fantastic service. Superb!”

You can think what you like about his pension deal. The Chief won’t be losing any sleep over what he sees as a perfectly fair and above- board arrangement.