Ofcom were targeted in a Sunday Times article about high rates of pay in the public sector. Apparently, the Taxpayers’ Alliance presented research which showed that 11 current or former senior Ofcom officials are in the top 100 of public sector pay.

So, are Ofcom officials overpaid?

I’ve previously commented on this in the context of oversight of Ofcom by Parliament. The issue was not raised in a very professional manner then (Apr 07), and I am not sure the Times / Taxpayers’ Alliance do any better. I recall Michael Howard raised the issue a few years back as well.

The real issue is whether the regulatory scheme delivers value for money. In this respect, Ofcom have made some significant improvements, for example, by moving its staff to a defined contribution retirement scheme. Ofcom have also attempted to reduce the total cost of regulation in the sector, although increased co-regulation makes the total cost difficult to calculate. Reasonable people can disagree on whether particular expenditures make sense. Reasonable people can also disagree about whether Ofcom are setting and achieving goals that are meaningful to the public.

So the pay-focus seems to miss the point. Any money spent to promote the Public Service Publisher (PSP) is probably a waste. Much of the money spent dealing with pointless broadcast complaints is wasted. Etc. Money spent opposing / shaping the AVMS Directive: Well spent.

It reminds me of a situation a few years back in Washington D.C. The police force in one of the suburbs purchased a very expensive fleet of Volvos for their patrol cars. You can imagine the snide comments the officers had to endure: ‘You probably have to write a lot of speeding tickets to pay for that car, officer…‘