The highest-paid officer at the West of England Combined Authority received a whopping £268,000 last year, new figures reveal. And for the past seven months, Weca has been paying not one but two chief executives at the same time, with the permanent incumbent on long-term sick leave and the other an interim on sky-high agency rates.
The combined authority’s annual accounts, which have just been published, show Richard Ennis earned £268,410 for three senior temporary roles he held from April 1, 2022, to March 31 this year. That figure is what he received and does not include the additional money Weca forked out to a third party – likely to be a recruitment agency – for his services, which the papers do not disclose.
It includes £124,467 for the four months between December 1 last year and March 31, 2023, after he was appointed interim acting chief executive while the organisation’s top officer, Patricia Greer, was on extended leave through illness. Weca has confirmed that it is still paying both as chief execs and that Dr Greer remains on sickness absence.
