A report has criticised the payment of more than £80,000 of taxpayers' money to Wales' former top civil servant Dame Shan Morgan. The Auditor General for Wales, Adrian Crompton, found the Welsh Government's payment "lacked transparency and did not comply with good governance principles".
Dame Shan — who partially retired in April 2018 — was paid a base salary in 2020-21 in the band of £135,000 to £140,000 a year. She received a payment of £80,519 when she left the Permanent Secretary role in October last year following the appointment of her successor Dr Andrew Goodall. After concerns were raised over the payment, Mr Crompton has written in a report: "I have been unable to satisfy myself that the decision to make a payment of £80,519 to the Permanent Secretary on termination of her employment was properly made and, to date, properly accounted for."
The Auditor General found the payment broke down into three elements — £31,843 in lieu of notice, £9,553 in untaken annual leave, and £39,123 for extra days worked. Starting with the payment in lieu of notice, he wrote: "In the circumstances under which I understand the Permanent Secretary left her employment, she was not entitled to receive a payment in lieu of notice under the terms of her contract, but it would not have been unreasonable for her to seek a severance payment as compensation for the termination of her employment."
