Senior SA public servants earning more than Premier Jay Weatherill
DOZENS of the State Government’s senior public servants are being paid more than Premier Jay Weatherill’s $374,648 salary — and most aren’t even in charge of their department.
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DOZENS of the State Government’s senior public servants are being paid more than Premier Jay Weatherill’s $374,648 salary, and some are receiving almost $200,000 more each year.
Many of the highest-paid state government executives are not even department chiefs, but 27 of them earn more than the Premier. There are now 93 executives earning more than $300,000 each year, compared with the average pay for South Australian public servants of $65,000.
The list of highest earners does not include highly paid medical specialists, or specialists in other fields who command salaries aligned with their private-sector counterparts.
Commissioner for Public Service Employment Erma Ranieri, who provided the figures to The Advertiser, acknowledged there had not been a “consistent” approach in setting annual salary increases.
Ms Ranieri said a new Chief Executive Performance Evaluation Panel would ensure standard pay rises for department heads, replacing the former in-house system with a panel headed by an independent chairman.
“The evaluation panel will subsequently provide a report to the Premier on the overall assessment of the chief executive’s performance,’’ she said.
“(It will) ensure a consistent approach to performance management and development for chief executives.”
The alternative system is being implemented after The Advertiser revealed last year that a consultancy report commissioned by the public service suggested CEOs should be paid up to $637,000, when the highest was then paid $555,000.
The panel — including the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s chief executive, Ms Ranieri, the chief executive of Treasury, and an independent chair — will use signed agreements that require CEOs to meet goals such as “a positive operating budget” and “achieve saving targets’’.
The departments for Health, Education, Environment, Transport, Attorney-General, State Development, and Premier and Cabinet refused to reveal the current salary packages of their CEOs when asked by The Advertiser.
Opposition spokesman Rob Lucas said: “South Australians struggling with skyrocketing electricity prices and Jay Weatherill’s ESL tax will be angry at the number of public servants being paid such high salaries.”
Commenting on the 27 public servants earning more than the Premier, former Transport Department chief executive Rod Hook questioned the value of the salary packages.
Mr Hook, now a consultant, said: “I doubt we have a need for 30 people operating at this level, but more than that, we probably have another 1000 people being paid ... between $250,000 and $350,000.
“These are very good salary levels if benchmarked against the private sector for comparable levels of responsibility and accountability.’’
The Department of Premier and Cabinet would not say what its current CEO Don Russell was paid, but the annual package of the man he replaced in the last 12 months was $555,000, or almost $200,000 more than the Premier.
Uniting Communities manager of advocacy and communications Mark Henley said the public had a right to ask if it was getting good value for money from the public sector.
“My answer to this question is probably not, at the moment, while noting that some public services are fantastic,’’ he said.
“I’d suggest we need a public service that is more public-focused.”
