Farmers condemn government agency antics
Farmers still waiting for their subsidies to be delivered would be “absolutely livid” to hear of naked antics at the government agency responsible, a union leader has warned.
President of the National Farmers’ union (NFU) Peter Kendall said many people who had waited months to be given the single farm payments (SFP) they were entitled to would read the news with “absolute horror”.
He was speaking after it was announced that a member of staff at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) office in Newcastle had been sacked and others disciplined after they were caught engaging in high jinx at work.
One member of staff was caught on CCTV jumping naked from a filing cabinet, while there are also reports of staff having sex in office toilets, holding break-dancing competitions during working hours and fighting in the reception area.
The RPA is the agency responsible for delivering the SFP, which was introduced in 2003 as a simpler way of getting European subsidies to English farmers and was due to be given out to farmers this February.
However, even now about 20 per cent of farmers have yet to receive the payment, leaving many of them to rely on expensive loans to survive. The chief executive of the RPA was sacked earlier this year over the row.
“Most farmers have received some money now but there’s still a small minority, about 3,000 farmers, who’ve received no money at all. I would add the new ministerial team have made getting money out to farmers a top priority,” Mr Kendall told Today.
“But when farmers read about this sort of high jinx going on at the RPA they’re going to be livid and think no wonder my money hasn’t been got out and my legitimate claim been processed.”
Shadow agriculture minister Jim Paice said the revelation raised questions about how the RPA was running – the Conservatives have previously called for farming minister Lord Bach to resign over the payments row.
“This kind of behaviour is unacceptable in any office, but in a public service where they should have been processing long overdue payments for thousands of farmers it raises even more questions about managerial competence within the RPA,” Mr Paice said.
A spokesman for the agency said it would “inappropriate” to comment while disciplinary actions were continuing, but confirmed that one member of staff had already been sacked.
“Allegations of serious misconduct by some agency and permanent staff at our Newcastle office is the subject of an ongoing internal investigation,” he said.
He added: “The RPA expects high standards of its staff, who have very important and responsible jobs to do for the farming industry, and will not tolerate breaches such as those described.”
