Council agency bonuses: Phil Goff claims no knowledge of $1million in payments made to executives

Tuesday, 15 October 2019

Newly re-elected Phil Goff returns to his mayoral office.

Auckland's mayor Phil Goff said he knew nothing of bonuses paid to executives in council agencies, now known to total more than $1 million a year.

Four council agencies have now revealed they pay bonuses, with the largest total at the council water company Watercare Services, where $543,000 was shared among 20 senior staff.

Stuff had previously revealed 38 staff at the council property and development arm Panuku, received $451,156 in bonuses, while the event and economic development agency ATEED told Stuff it had paid $121,682 across five staff.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff starts his second term with executive bonuses in his sights

'I want that policy looked at, I'm not happy with it,' said Goff in an interview.

A fourth agency, Regional Facilities Auckland had one executive on a contract pre-dating the 2010 amalgamation, which provided a bonus based on sales revenue.

Water CEO Raveen Jaduram started in 2014 on $510,000 with up to $36,000 available in bonuses.

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'The thing to remember about Council-Controlled Organisations (CCOs) is they are public bodies, funded by the ratepayer and in part by the taxpayer,' Goff told Stuff.

'They work commercially, and I know you have to recruit and retain in the market, but they are not private sector bodies,' said the mayor.

Goff said the issue would be part of a wider-ranging review of the CCOs, which would begin next year, but there were also things he could do under the current regime of arms-length control between the council and its subsidiaries.

The mayor meets monthly with the chairs of the agencies, but told Stuff the scale of bonuses was news to him.

'That was not something that had been made obvious to me at all,' he said.

Some of the payments had been revealed publicly in past years.

When Watercare's current chief executive Raveen Jaduram was appointed in 2014, the agency said his base salary then of $510,000, could rise to $586,500 through performance bonuses.

Chief executive salaries across the council group took a tumble as the initial appointees installed in 2010, gradually moved on.

Jaduram's $510,000-$586,000 in 2014, compared with his predecessor, the late Mark Ford who was on on $860,000 when he resigned on medical grounds.

The council's first CEO, Doug McKay, earned on $780,000 but his successor Stephen Town began on $150,000 less.

Panuku last week said its executive bonus scheme had been recommended by the executive team itself in 2017, following the appointment of the current chief executive Roger MacDonald. The board had agreed to it.