Sacked RPA boss in receipt of £250,000 compensation

The civil servant who oversaw the single farm payment fiasco has received more than £250,000 since being suspended over the failure to pay farmers on time.

Johnston McNeill, the former boss of the Rural Payments Agency who was sacked last December, told a House of Commons committee he had since received over £60,000 in compensation from the Civil Service Appeals Board.

He also received £81,000 during the eight months he spent on full pay after being suspended in March 2006 before receiving half a year’s salary of £56,000, a lump sum of £42,000 and pension worth £12,800 a year when he was dismissed.

Mr McNeill told the Commons Public Accounts Committee: “I’ve had no disciplinary hearing, I’ve had no correspondence about what exactly it is I have done wrong and I’ve had no opportunity to appeal.”