Glasgow's Golden Goodbyes
I haven't heard from Sandra White during the long fight for equal pay, but according to The Herald the MSP for Glasgow Kelvin has her knickers in a real twist over a 'golden goodbye' payment to a senior health board official in Tayside.
Much closer to home Glasgow City Council made an even larger payment (£120,079) to boost the pension benefits of one of its departing senior officials - for which there was no contractual entitlement.
So far at least Glasgow's MSPs have not been raising their voices in protest at this even more cavalier use of public money though let's see what happens in the days ahead.
More on this story to follow soon - so watch this space.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16406384.msp-jenny-marra-says-90k-payment-to-former-tayside-boss-lesley-mclay-inappropriate/
MSP Jenny Marra says £90k payment to former Tayside boss Lesley McLay 'inappropriate'
Helen McArdle @HMcardleHT - The Herald
Lesley McLay
AN MSP said NHS Tayside must explain why they handed "such a huge severance payment" to disgraced former chief executive Lesley McLay, amid reports she received a package worth £90,000.
Read more: NHS Tayside reject claim disgraced boss paid £300,000 severance package
Labour MSP Jenny Marra sparked a row earlier this week when she claimed she had been told that Ms McLay was paid a "golden goodbye" worth more than £300,000 when she stepped down from the organisation on July 31.
The health board hit back, branding Ms Marra's claims "categorically untrue".
Although it did not dispute that Ms McLay had received a severance package upon her departure, NHS Tayside chiefs insisted that she had been awarded only what she was contractually entitled to and nothing more.
Now, amid fresh reports that Ms McLay walked away with £90,000, including pension contributions, Ms Marra said the sum was "inappropriate".
Read more: Former Tayside boss Lesley McLay signed off sick day after being stripped of chief executive title
NHS Tayside has declined to comment on the £90,000 claim.
Ms Marra, who chairs the Scottish Parliament's Public Audit committee, said: “I am sure most people will agree that such a huge severance payment is inappropriate in this case.
“SNP politicians should explain to their constituents why they think it is acceptable for a health board that has been chronically underfunded by their own government to reward failure."
Ms Marra's comments come after John Brown, chairman of NHS Tayside, wrote to her on Tuesday in her capacity as convener of the Public Audit committee with details of Ms McLay's pay-off.
Ms Marra added: “If NHS Tayside had been honest about the extent of this pay off in the first place, the board could have gone some way to starting to rebuild trust with patients and staff.
"Instead, it has now been forced to release this information that should have been made public in the first place.
“I look forward to seeing Audit Scotland’s opinion on this payment when they publish their latest emergency report in September on the financial mess at NHS Tayside.”
Read more: NHS Tayside axed own rules to use charity cash for general spending
Ms McLay was signed off sick in April, the day after being stripped of her chief executive title in the wake of revelations in the Herald that the health board had used £3.6 million of charity cash for routine spending.
Read more: Health Secretary Shona Robison blasts financial culture at NHS Tayside as 'in a league of its own'
Earlier, SNP MSP Sandra White demanded Ms Marra retract her “smears” against NHS Tayside in relation to the £300,000 pay-off claim.
Ms White, who sits on Holyrood’s Health committee, said: “We are used to this sort of thing from Labour, as they continually seek to mislead when it comes to the NHS in Scotland.
"But Ms Marra’s claims aren’t just wrong and misleading, they are wildly off the mark – and it appears to be a deliberate attempt to undermine our health service.
"People have legal entitlements and the NHS simply cannot refuse to make those payments, but as Tayside has said throughout there has been no 'pay-off' or golden goodbye as Ms Marra claimed.
"Jenny Mara must now apologise and publicly retract her baseless claims – as well as setting out on what basis she made them."
Lesley McLay
AN MSP said NHS Tayside must explain why they handed "such a huge severance payment" to disgraced former chief executive Lesley McLay, amid reports she received a package worth £90,000.
Read more: NHS Tayside reject claim disgraced boss paid £300,000 severance package
Labour MSP Jenny Marra sparked a row earlier this week when she claimed she had been told that Ms McLay was paid a "golden goodbye" worth more than £300,000 when she stepped down from the organisation on July 31.
The health board hit back, branding Ms Marra's claims "categorically untrue".
Although it did not dispute that Ms McLay had received a severance package upon her departure, NHS Tayside chiefs insisted that she had been awarded only what she was contractually entitled to and nothing more.
Now, amid fresh reports that Ms McLay walked away with £90,000, including pension contributions, Ms Marra said the sum was "inappropriate".
Read more: Former Tayside boss Lesley McLay signed off sick day after being stripped of chief executive title
NHS Tayside has declined to comment on the £90,000 claim.
Ms Marra, who chairs the Scottish Parliament's Public Audit committee, said: “I am sure most people will agree that such a huge severance payment is inappropriate in this case.
“SNP politicians should explain to their constituents why they think it is acceptable for a health board that has been chronically underfunded by their own government to reward failure."
Ms Marra's comments come after John Brown, chairman of NHS Tayside, wrote to her on Tuesday in her capacity as convener of the Public Audit committee with details of Ms McLay's pay-off.
Ms Marra added: “If NHS Tayside had been honest about the extent of this pay off in the first place, the board could have gone some way to starting to rebuild trust with patients and staff.
"Instead, it has now been forced to release this information that should have been made public in the first place.
“I look forward to seeing Audit Scotland’s opinion on this payment when they publish their latest emergency report in September on the financial mess at NHS Tayside.”
Read more: NHS Tayside axed own rules to use charity cash for general spending
Ms McLay was signed off sick in April, the day after being stripped of her chief executive title in the wake of revelations in the Herald that the health board had used £3.6 million of charity cash for routine spending.
Read more: Health Secretary Shona Robison blasts financial culture at NHS Tayside as 'in a league of its own'
Earlier, SNP MSP Sandra White demanded Ms Marra retract her “smears” against NHS Tayside in relation to the £300,000 pay-off claim.
Ms White, who sits on Holyrood’s Health committee, said: “We are used to this sort of thing from Labour, as they continually seek to mislead when it comes to the NHS in Scotland.
"But Ms Marra’s claims aren’t just wrong and misleading, they are wildly off the mark – and it appears to be a deliberate attempt to undermine our health service.
"People have legal entitlements and the NHS simply cannot refuse to make those payments, but as Tayside has said throughout there has been no 'pay-off' or golden goodbye as Ms Marra claimed.
"Jenny Mara must now apologise and publicly retract her baseless claims – as well as setting out on what basis she made them."
Glasgow's Double Standards (21/07/18)
Senior officials in Glasgow City Council claim to have acted in 'good faith' over the introduction of the WPBR and its blatantly discriminatory 37-hour rule.
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary they insist their cockamamy pay scheme was a genuine effort to eliminate gender-based pay discrimination, yet at the same time they refuse to answer FOI requests which would explain how senior officials conducted themselves, i.e. what they signed up to at the time the WPBR was introduced.
The reason given for refusing my FOI requests is that this would cost the council more than £600 to provide this information - yet the council's chief executive had no qualms about authorising a £120,079 'gift' to a senior colleague so that she could access her pension early.
What does Stefan Cross QC think of this contemptible behaviour? - read on and find out.
ONE RULE FOR THEM, ANOTHER FOR US
Mark Irvine's dogged digging of this dodgy deal has exposed a number of things about GCC OFFICERS
1. These are exactly the same officers failing to properly negotiate your entitlement
2. The don’t half love secrecy
3 The dole out taxpayers cash very easily when it’s for one of their own
4 They demand external verification of any money to be paid to you but avoid any external scrutiny of payments to themselves
Hypocrisy is the word that springs to mind.
STEFAN CROSS
