The Welsh Government needs to ensure that there is "greater clarity" and a "clearer rational" around senior pay levels in the public sector, says a cross-party committee of Assembly Members.
The National Assembly for Wales’s Public Accounts Committee undertook an inquiry into senior manager pay and in their report, the committee says that a clear definition of what is meant by a senior post in the public sector needs should be produced and disseminated by the Welsh Government.
"It was sometimes difficult to make comparisons between pay arrangements between similar organisations and there were inconsistencies across the public sector as a whole," said committee chair Daren Millar AM.
"We were concerned about these findings, as we believe that it is vital that the information on levels of senior manager pay levels in the public sector should be clear and accessible to the public. This will allow for effective scrutiny together with an educated and informed debate about senior management pay to take place.
"To address our concerns we are proposing a suite of recommendations aimed at eradicating the inconsistencies in reporting and ensuring accountability to taxpayers.
"Our recommendations do not place any significant additional burden on organisations, instead they aim to bring consistency to reporting on senior management pay, make information more accessible to the public and provide for greater levels of transparency regarding organisational decision-making across the whole public sector."
The committee makes 23 recommendations in total including
- clear definition of what is meant by a senior post in the public sector is produced and disseminated by the Welsh Government.This should have consideration to the level of remuneration, the scale of the organisation concerned and the level of responsibility of the post holder.
- a glossary of terms relating to senior pay is produced and published by the Welsh Government, which sets out the most appropriate terms to be used in pay disclosures, as well as explanations for less frequently used terms. The Committee further recommends that narratives to accounts contain adequate notes which are easy to interpret and provide a clear explanation of any unusual situations.
- the Welsh Government work with local authorities to ensure that items pertaining to pay matters are listed clearly and separately on all agendas.
- the Welsh Government consider the make-up and recruitment of the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales, as positions become available, to ensure it is representative of wider civil society