THE CHIEF executive of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), Dr Michael Somers, has said that attempting to change the agency’s corporate and pay structures will be “tricky”.
Dr Somers was responding to the McCarthy report which recommended that the agency’s corporate structures on pay and oversight be reviewed against the norms across the public sector.
The review board, chaired by economist Colm McCarthy, said the agency had no remuneration committee and “limited transparency” on pay, while its advisory committee had “limited oversight powers”. Corporate governance arrangements should be reviewed to assess “their ongoing suitability”, the board said.
NTMA staff fall outside public sector pay rates. Dr Somers said that when the agency was created in 1990 the then taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, said it should “pay market rates for the right people”.
Dr Somers said the agency is advised by recruitment consultants Mercer every year to benchmark pay against the private sector and he approves each employee’s pay; the Minister for Finance reviews his salary.
Total salaries, excluding pension costs, were €19.4 million for 2008, with staff on an average annual salary of €89,850.
Dr Somers said the agency was set up under “tricky arrangements” and it would get “trickier” to try and change its structures with another body, the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), coming under its aegis.
He said that it was not possible to establish a board to oversee the NTMA as the agency exercises the powers of the Minister and that it was not deemed possible to have a decision-making board as this would diffuse responsibility.
“It’s not as easy or as simple as you might think because we cannot have a board doing what the Minister wants in borrowing or debt management,” he said.
He said the agency’s substantial workload had increased further due to the banking crisis and that he would not have the time to review the agency’s structure.