FARMERS have reacted with shock and anger to news the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) spent £250,000 on a single member of staff for less than 12 months' work.

According to the RPA Annual Report and Accounts 2007/08, the agency paid a finance director, employed on a temporary basis through a recruitment agency, £249,651 from June 2007.

Its human resources director, also employed on a temporary basis through an agency, was paid £263,812 by the RPA from September 2006.

The RPA is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and provides services such as rural payments, rural inspections and livestock tracing.

Richard Haddock, former regional chairman of the South West National Farmers' Union, said the sums paid to agency staff were "hugely fantastic", and would be galling for farmers who have had to wait for their single farm payment, leaving many in financial chaos.

He said: "For someone in the city, it doesn't mean a lot, but those farmers who have been waiting for months, and in some cases even years, that's millions."

Mr Haddock said Defra and the RPA were getting away with "financial murder", adding: "This will be a huge shock to farmers and it's time it got sorted out once and for all."

The revelation follows the news, reported in the WMN yesterday, that Defra had been criticised for repeated budget bungling and "poor financial management".

The Committee of Public Accounts, made up of an influential group of MPs, published a scathing report after Defra had to claw back more than £300 million of public funds over two years.

Commenting on the RPA's huge spend on agency staff, Jim Paice, shadow minister for agriculture and rural affairs, said: "It is incredible that while farmers were left waiting for their single farm payment the RPA was shelling out £250,000 to its finance director for less than a year's work.

"In barely 18 months another £263,812 of taxpayers' money was spent on a temporary human resources director, which is nice work if you can get it.

"The RPA claims to be meeting its targets but last year alone it received more than 1,000 complaints, wasted millions on agency staff and only started making payments to farmers when most other European countries were finishing.

"Limited progress cannot hide the dreadful mess the Government has made of the Single Payment Scheme or the huge improvements still required before English farmers enjoy any semblance of parity with their EU counterparts."

Caroline Forcer, a spokesman for the RPA, said: "The finance director and the human resources director had been employed on an interim basis and were procured through standard recruitment procedures appropriate for Senior Civil Service level staff.

"In order to obtain directors of their seniority and with their experience, and following an unsuccessful search for permanent candidates within the senior Civil Service, it was necessary to pay the going commercial rate."

She added a permanent finance director had now been found and a human resources director is being recruited.