William Shawcross’s comments earlier in the week, following the disclosure that the number of staff at foreign aid charities earning salaries greater than £100,000 a year has grown from 19 to 30 since 2010, caused consternation. The leading article in this week’s Spectator makes two points on the subject.
1). The expansion of the DfID budget has coincided with the growth of executive pay at charities, just as the expansion of the health budget under Blair and Brown coincided with the growth of staff pay in the NHS. Criticism of salaries should never be motivated by envy, but neither the charitable sector nor the NHS has provided adequate results to justify such salaries. HIV and malaria are yet to be eradicated. Mid Staffs is neither an exception nor a distant memory.
2). Emboldened by cash and a political department in their name, some charities have become highly politicised.
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