NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE
Unwittingly perhaps Jon Joughin’s MHKs focus on the rather curious manner in which positions on the Education Council were allocated has focused once again on the whole area of appointments to the plethora of bodies that the Manx government appoint. Here is a link to our take on Mr Joughin’s enquiry:
Coincidentally it is just over a month since we focused on the appointments process to this vast array of entities (committees, tribunals etc) on the fringes of government.
At the time we got a fairly comprehensive response from government Chief Secretary Will Greenhow indeed it was so detailed that we could not reproduce all forty or so pages. Suffice to say there are loads of these quangos!
It however did not specifically indentify just ‘how good a little earner’ a position on one of these committees was confining itself to outlining what a sessional payement was. Here’s the link to the item we did at the time on Mr Greenhows response:
Joughin’s query however seems to suggest that positions are being allocated disproportionately to former senior government employees and furthermore people to whom a seat on the Committee (he focused on) could be a useful sinecure at a time they are already in receipt of a very generous occupational pension. (Link):
https://www.manxradio.com/…/crookall-to-be-pressed-over-edu…/
Now if we extrapolate this thinking to the vast array of bodies cross government which these nameless/faceless people sit on then I think it is past time that an index of bodies and the expenses paid were published.
A further complication is that I understand these allowances are not taxable – so it’s a nice little earner if you can ‘trouser’ that on top of your tidy monthly pension!
BERNARD MOFFATT
Issued by: The Celtic News
15/02/16
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The Celtic League established in 1961 has branches in the six Celtic Countries. It promotes cooperation between the countries and campaigns on a range of political, cultural and environmental matters. It highlights human rights abuse, military activity and socio-economic issues
