Public bodies will be told to publish online the job titles of every member of staff and the salaries and expenses of top earners, should the Conservatives win the general election.
The Conservative Manifesto 2010, published today, outlines plans for Whitehall, local government and non-departmental public bodies to publish details of the people employed by them in a bid to increase transparency and “root out waste”.
Anyone paid more than the prime minister in the public sector will have their salary signed off by the Treasury, and councillors will be given the power to vote on large salary packages for unelected council officials, the document adds.
Quangos face an uncertain future as the Tories warned they will scrap those that do not prove their worth.
The manifesto pledges to tackle “wasteful” government procurement projects, in part by appointing senior private sector non-executives to departmental boards in a bid to deliver better value for money.
Elsewhere, civil servants will be required to participate in ‘social action’ – whereby individuals, communities, organisations and businesses work together to address the social issues they care about – and will be measured on progress in annual appraisals.
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As part of the social action pledge, the Conservatives want to create neighbourhood groups, using Cabinet Office funding, to empower local people to take action to improve their areas.
Shadow cabinet secretary Francis Maude told Personnel Today last year that the public sector should become more business-like, and said the party would push senior-ranking civil servants to take secondments and temporary career-breaks in the private sector.
