§ 56. Brigadier - General CROFTasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware that on a certain colonel in receipt of £350 a year in the Establishment Department of the Ministry of Munitions relinquishing his appointment a successor was appointed at £365 per annum who was already drawing £1,000 a year from another Government Department, and that on his discovering that his personal assistant was receiving £750 a year from the Ministry and another £700 from another Government Department, the matter was regularised by his salary being immediately raised to £800 a year in order that he should receive more. than his personal assistant; and, if so, under what circumstances these two officials were permitted to draw from public funds £3,250 a year for work that, as in the case of the colonel, many an ex-Service man would be glad to do for £350 per annum?
§ Mr. KELLAWAYI have been asked to answer this question. In view of the length of this answer, I propose to circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
The following is the reply circulated:
The post referred to in the first part of the hon. and gallant Member's question is a temporary one, which normally carries a salary of £800 per annum, and the allowances of £350 and £365 were paid by the Ministry to and accepted by the officials in question on the clear understanding that those rates were nominal only. The second holder of the post was a retired Indian Civil servant, and the sum of £1,000 per annum was his pension from Indian funds earned by long service. The salary paid by the Ministry to the personal assistant, who is an Indian Civil servant on the active list, was £350 per annum only, in addition to which he received £500 per annum, the minimum allowance paid by the Government of India to officals of his standing when absent in this country. This officer if employed on deputation at the India Office would ordinarily receive pay at the rate of £1,175.
The decision to allow a salary of £800 per annum in order to retain for a short period, now finished, the services of the superior officer was approved by the Ministry, and was not affected by the 33 salary paid to the personal assistant; and the total sum drawn from the British Exchequer by these two officers was £1,150 per annum only.