How about showing us the money

Knighthoods are often given to people for being good at a job they are already being paid to do or for making huge profits out of trading in money, alcohol or guns.

Now we discover, courtesy of the UK, that knighthoods can also be taken away. This has been a revelation. Fred Goodwin, former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland has been stripped of the honorific Sir because of the part he played in the financial crisis and consequent need for government bailouts to save banks, including his own, from going bust. He is now a member of an elite group of ex-knights that includes Mussolini and Mugabe.

Here in New Zealand, CEO remuneration versus actual performance has also come under scrutiny. Local authorities are being closely questioned by ratepayers on the matter of pay rises for CEO roles at a time when most city councils are trying to wrestle their way out of huge debts.

In the US, the Institute for Policy Studies reported on executive remuneration and found a strong correlation between those CEOs on the highest salaries and those laying off thousands of staff. Firing people is a clearly a special skill deserving of multi-million-dollar salaries. Making people redundant with one hand while collecting a performance bonus with the other, is obviously very hard work deserving rich reward.

There is a risk and responsibility these CEOs carry. If things go badly wrong and the company is losing money, the CEO takes responsibility for their part in this and quits, gallantly declining any bonus or golden handshake as they leave the building with their belongings in a box. Oops - I forgot. This rarely happens.

The minions get fired, the CEO remains in the job, saying they were not responsible for whatever went wrong and continues to collect pay and bonuses. It's all remuneration at very little risk.

This may also explain why so many CEOs move on after six years with a company. This is long enough for their restructuring decisions to be implemented but not long enough to see whether their leadership has actually made a difference.

The other side to corporate citizenship highlighted by the Institute for Policy Studies was that some companies were paying their CEOs more money than they were paying in taxes.

The ability to hide money from the taxman is a privilege of the wealthy not available to the average wage earner. Even Warren Buffet, one of the wealthiest people in the US, noted there is something very wrong with an economic environment in which he pays a lower proportion of tax relative to earnings than his secretary does.

Here in New Zealand, John Key started chanting "show me the money" during the election. That call is now being echoed by the citizens of Christchurch and Kapiti, and seems to be the underlining factor in the sale of farms to foreign buyers. Where in the furore about who is buying New Zealand land is the discussion about who is doing the selling part of this equation? There is no talk of legislation to prevent New Zealanders selling land to overseas buyers. Perhaps those people are just echoing the Prime Minister's mantra of "show me the money".

John Key can set an example of "show us the money" by detailing how much it costs taxpayers to fly him, plus his entourage, from Auckland to Wellington and then back home again while at the same time he is asking struggling families and community services to tighten their fiscal belts.

•Check out Terry's song linked with this column "Show Me the Money" at myspace.com/terrysarten

http://www.myspace.com/video/rid/110977548

Terry Sarten is a local writer, musician and social worker. Email: tgs@inspire.net.nz