The growing use of public sector external appointments to the Civil Service has promoted extra scrutiny because of disparities in pay scales. Civil Service Commissioners will now regulate both external and internal promotions within the top 200 Civil Service positions, Janet Paraskeva, the first Civil Service commissioner, said this week. She added: ‘Salaries awarded to the successful candidates for the external competitions we chaired did not always match those advertised. ‘In some cases, notably posts offered to external candidates from the private sector or wider public sector whose experience was seen as essential for the post, salaries were considerably in excess of those quoted.' This, she said, was in contrast to internal appointments, where it was ‘not uncommon' for pay scales to be lower than the advertised rate, and the position would be ‘carefully monitored.' She also criticised the gender gap with only 24 (27%) of the 90 senior Civil Service appointments made this year going to women.
