Olympics chief heads quango pay list with £654,000 package

Olympics boss David Higgins was paid a bonus of £216,000 last year, the Standard can reveal today.

It brings his total earnings, including salary and pension as chief executive of the Olympic Delivery Authority, to £654,000. The package makes him the highest-earning boss of a quango. He was entitled to a £210,000 bonus last year but deferred half of it after an outcry about ODA pay.

Mr Higgins's deal has been the subject of wrangling between the ODA and ministers who have been clamping down on public sector pay. It was revealed today by the ODA after attempts by the Standard to discover his pay under the Freedom of Information Act were initially rejected.

The ODA declined to say whether the Australian would qualify for an additional bonus when he leaves the Olympic project early next year to become chief executive of Network Rail. An ODA spokesman said: "The ODA has hit all its milestones and is on time and within the budget set by Government." Mr Higgins's bosses at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport have publicly praised his work.

But privately ministers admit that they would have structured ODA contracts differently so that executives were awarded bonuses at the end of the project and not midway through.

The ODA's accounts for 2009/10 revealed that seven ODA directors received average annual bonuses of £48,000 on top of packages worth between £257,000 and £372,000.

Olympics minister Hugh Robertson has urged the ODA to take account of "prevailing economic conditions" when making pay awards.