The Liberal Democrats' Environment Spokesman, Tim Farron MP, has questioned whether DEFRA's top brass really represent value for money for Britain's farmers.
Quoted in the Yorkshire Post (Jan. 12th 2010), Mr Farron has criticised bonus payments made to staff in the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), which has been responsible for bungles that have cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds and have given many farmers major financial headaches.
Bonuses to RPA staff last year totalled £558,943 bringing the total bonus payments since 2005 to almost £2million.
According to the Yorkshire Post, the RPA has been heavily criticised by the National Audit Office, which called its handling of Single Farm Payment cheques "a masterclass of maladministration", with the average cost of handling claims being £1,743, even for claims which were for only a few pounds. The National Audit Office also said that the agency had shown "scant regard for the protection of public money" and that its negligence had left a black hole of £628m to be funded by the taxpayer.
Mr. Farron said, "With the average hill farmer earning just £5,000 per year, it is hard to justify the extravagant amounts being paid to these civil servants. But what makes these figures all the more unbelievable is some of the high-profile errors made by DEFRA within the last year, particularly the loss of 100,000 farmers' bank details by the Rural Payments Agency"
