Fat Cats Get the Cream

There has been a lot of media furore recently, particularly from the more extreme British nationalist newspapers, with regard to the growing numbers of people who have come from other countries to Britain in order to ‘sponge’ off the British taxpayer. There is no doubt that there are a lot of people who come to Britain in order simply to claim what benefits such residence entails but it is equally true that there are many people from foreign countries who come to Britain in order to work and many of them who carry out important functions within the economy, both in the private and public sectors, for example: as doctors, nurses, teachers etc. This is particularly true with regard to the N.H.S. and with the current state of our Health Care System it is difficult to conceive how it might cope without such ‘foreigners’ and the vital role they perform in enabling that essential institution to function. What this media induced frenzy has, however, allowed is for attention to be shifted largely from the people who are really milking the system for all its worth, the various ‘fat cats’. This imbalance in media coverage has, however, been redressed somewhat by the recent case of GlaxoSmithCline the company involved in the recent revolt by shareholders, who just simply refused to allow their Chief Executive to be rewarded for failure, to the sum of some £20 million. To put it simply, even if he was abysmal at his job and got the boot he still got a £20 million golden handshake.

In Northern Ireland we too have more than our fair share of fat cats who have their proverbial noses in the trough. For example, it has just been revealed that Tom Constantine (Oversight Commissioner) the retired US Police officer who is in charge of the overseeing of police reform in Northern Ireland received an estimated £1,939 for every day that he works in Northern Ireland. The combined fee for his services is at the moment a staggering £191,981 for what is said to be 99 days worth of work in Northern Ireland. This information was revealed to Nigel Dodds in a question asked in Parliament. The NIO response has been that it compares favourably to other remuneration packages that a consultant could expect. This is hard for many people to swallow; particularly the average man and woman who are struggling to make ends meet and who do not even nearly earn in a month what Mr. Constantine can earn in a days work. Mr. Constantine is not, however, the only person who appears to be feeding off the political structures and the ‘peace process’. Since the Good Friday Agreement and the political structures of devolved government such fat cats have been growing and so too has the amount of our tax that goes to keeping them in the lifestyle that they are accustomed to.

According to a recent newspaper article Northern Ireland has 11 Permanent Secretaries each of which earns approximately £100,000. In a country the size of Northern Ireland the fact that we have 11 Permanent Secretaries has to be called into question. Also, there are some departments who have a Second Permanent Secretary. These Second Permanent Secretaries are attached to the Offices of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister and Finance. Again, why do such Departments require a Second Permanent Secretary? What power do the public, the voters, have over not just the appointment but also the calling to account of such people if they are not carrying out of their position as well as they should be? The answer is they have no say and as a result whilst many of these people occupying such office may well be dedicated in their work there are many who are simply part of the gravy train. Again we are rewarding a culture of failure and not allowing true meritocracy because such people are never really accountable to the people who they are supposed to serve. The old hackneyed argument against Direct Rule that mainland civil servants, government ministers etc. could not possibly do as good a job as our own “home grown” stock of talent rings very hollow. Also, we must consider the extra expense to the British taxpayer of such things as the staff of such debatably useful bodies as the Decommissioning Commission, North South Institutions and a whole assortment of other quangos.

Even just as serious as this is so called white-collar crime and corporate crime: this is crime that is committed by companies, by businessmen and which costs the British taxpayer millions. Such crime involves fraud of various sorts such as tax evasion, insider dealing and company frauds to name just a few examples. According to the Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Penal System (1985) for white collar crime it is estimated that at the time the cost of all such offences amounted to between £300 million and perhaps as high as £1,000 million every year. This report detailed such fraud in Ireland but it is likely that much the same situation, although probably to a lesser extent, exists within Northern Ireland. For example, within the U.K. as whole it is thought that as much as an estimated £16 billion is lost as a result of white-collar crime and corporate crime every year.

It is clear that there are a lot of spongers in our society, and the worst offenders appear to be those who on first appearance are the very bastions of respectability. Time for a fair deal for all, especially for the average Loyalist working-class family, and all people struggling to make ends meet despite the fact that increasingly both the male and female in the household have to go out to earn, and they really do earn, a living. Many heralded a new era of better-run government with devolution not a feeding trough for the fat cats.