Should someone doing 3 days a month work get £14,358 per year?

Two vacancies on the soon to be abolished Audit Commission have just been advertised, seeking people willing to do 3 days a month work in return for an annual salary of £14,358.

That generous salary for someone helping to head up a body aimed at ensuring value for money might raise eyebrows at any time, but given that the Audit Commission’s audit practice is due to be moved into private hands in two years time it is particularly generous. Because who is going to be in a prime position to take up very well remunerated roles at the top of a private company in two years time? Those two people who are newly appointed and whose remit will specifically include managing that switch to private ownership. It’s not so much a case of jam today or jam tomorrow as jam today, tomorrow and the day after.

And can you guess the strap line on the Audit Commission’s website? “Protecting the public purse”. If only.

Oh, and who is going to doing the appointing of people on these well paid posts? Ironically, it will be Eric Pickles’s very own Department for Communities and Local Government. His axe should have swung a little further and a little faster on this one.