Revealed: SA Water bureaucrats share in $1.3 million in bonus payments as state households pay highest water bills in Australia
LUCRATIVE taxpayer-funded bonuses have been awarded to SA Water staff as South Australian households pay the highest water and sewerage bills in the country. VOTE NOW
LUCRATIVE taxpayer-funded bonuses have been awarded to SA Water staff, while South Australian households pay the highest water and sewerage bills in the country.
Official figures show that since 2011, hundreds of State Government agency bureaucrats were paid almost $1.3 million on top of generous salary packages, including some in excess of $100,000.
Details of the payments, obtained by The Advertiser under Freedom of Information laws, have angered the Opposition, which has questioned how such large sums were paid to staff for “doing their job”.
Details of agency bonuses have never been published in annual reports, to keep them off the books, it is understood.
The revelations came as a new independent inquiry into “crippling” water prices passed the Upper House, prompting a call from Opposition Leader Steven Marshall for bonuses to be scrapped.
“South Australians will be outraged that executives in a state government agency are being paid bonuses,” Mr Marshall said.
“Paying bonuses to SA Water employees while South Australians are being hit with the highest water rates in the nation is completely unacceptable.”
Family First MLC Robert Brokenshire said the public “should be furious” at such “exorbitant bonuses”.
“Coming up with good ideas and delivering major projects is part of their job and they should not be paid extra for it,” he said.
Over the past four financial years, 682 agency staff were rewarded with more than $1.27 million in “retention allowance” or “above target performance” payments.
Since 2011, five senior unnamed executives were paid almost $400,000 upon “completion of major works”, including two who were awarded $117,000 and $100,000.
SA Water insisted the payments were not bonuses, but it refused to provide project details.
However, they followed the completion of the $1.8 billion Port Stanvac desalination plant, expected to be mothballed, and a $400 million project to connect its pipes to households.
Other agency staff, from apprentices to middle managers earning six figures, shared in $889,000 for “above target” or “superior” performances.
The amounts rewarded each year reduced slightly but almost $178,000 has already been paid for the current financial year.
An SA Water spokesman said payments helped it hire and retain highly skilled staff with specific expertise.
“For key projects, the cost of retaining senior staff may be cheaper than a change in staffing in the midst of a project or engaging consultants,” he said.
Average annual household bills, including sewerage rates, remain the highest in the nation at $1362 a year, compared to $854 levied in 2009.
SA Water, which operates similarly to a private corporation but its dividends are paid to the government, delivered a profit of almost $284 million last year.
Last year The Advertiser revealed former Essential Services Commission of SA CEO, Paul Kerin, the state’s water pricing watchdog, had quit in protest at a lack of sector reform.
ESCOSA, an “independent” regulator of state utility prices, uses a Government order to set maximum revenues that SA Water can recoup between 2016 and 2020.
Household water charges are based on SA Water’s asset base, currently valued at more than $14.1 billion, which includes values of pipes, pumping stations and other infrastructure.
Water Minister Ian Hunter refused to be interviewed yesterday but in a written statement defended bonus payments.
“The most appropriate outcome for taxpayers is to avoid the cost of delays to key projects,” he said.