The last time the Finance and Corporate Director's salary was made public via Transport for Greater Manchester's (TfGM) website was May 2014, when he was pocketing a salary (not including pension etc) of between £150,000 and £154,999.
Since then, his salary has crept up to £159,995, which residents struggling to pay for buses and trams might think was enough for anyone. On Friday, however, Greater Manchester Interim Mayor, Tony Lloyd, is expected to rubber stamp another pay hike for the finance chief, taking his salary up to a whopping £169,995, backdated to April.
While the Finance Director works for TfGM, he is appointed by Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), and a report for Friday's meeting states that "that the duties of the post have significantly increased since the last salary review".
It gives an example of the Director leading on "the transition of the smart ticketing arrangements" which is the million-years-behind-schedule Oyster card type thing for Greater Manchester transport users. The report adds that "the relative level of responsibilities of the Director of Finance and Corporate Services is now comparable to the post of Chief Operating Officer", who has been coining in £169,995 since he got a pay hike post-2014.
The report also name-checks the Transport Devolution agenda which will "increase the responsibility" of the Finance Director. This pretty much confirms the cynics' view that Greater Manchester devolution will just create more local highly paid fat cats.
The recommendations are set out by Tony Lloyd and Chief Executive for Transport, Jon Lamonte; who, 2014 figures show, was trousering between £275,000 and £279,999 per year*.
The turkey and gravy train is rumbling all over Greater Manchester at the moment
* The Salford Star has asked for the latest full accounts of TfGM to shed light on the Chief Exec's current salary.
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