Nama remain silent on staff bonuses

Nama has refused to confirm if it is paying bonuses in a bid to retain key employees, despite identifying staff retention as the single most important factor in determining whether it achieves its targets.

Senior executives of the State’s bad bank brought the topic to the fore earlier this year, with chairman Frank Daly flagging the possibility of topping up salaries with “performance bonuses” in order to prevent key staff from leaving.

His comments were echoed by Nama CEO Brendan McDonagh who referred to the agency’s ability to manage its staffing requirements as the single most important factor in ensuring it achieves its objectives.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has indicated the overall cost of Nama’s redundancy scheme and its staff retention measures will not exceed €20m.

When contacted by the Irish Examiner, a Nama spokesperson was unable to confirm if bonuses have been paid, but instead referred to recent comments by Mr Noonan in which he reiterated the €20m figure, which encapsulates redundancy costs as well as staff retention measures.

The spokesperson was also unable to provide details as to the total cost of any staff retention plan that may be in place or the number of beneficiaries of such a scheme.

Furthermore, no information was available as to whether plans were in place to make additional payments to retain staff and a timeframe for that process, if no bonuses had been paid as of yet.

The spokesperson advised that Nama had no further response other than the minister’s recent replies to parliamentary questions.

Nama, which yesterday released half-yearly financial results, is in an accelerated wind-down and has faced significant staffing challenges as it nears its end.

Some 67 staff left Nama in 2014 representing a fifth of its entire workforce at the beginning of the year.

Its current strategy is to reduce its headcount from 342 to 291 by the end of the year and to 125 by the end of 2016, subject to meeting targets.

Nama may be wound down two years ahead of its initial target date of 2020.

Mr McDonagh has expressed his concern over the loss of workers and Nama’s ability to hold onto staff with the requisite skills and experience to manage its portfolio.

Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson, Michael McGrath said Nama was now entering its “end game” and faced a number of big-ticket decisions that would have huge consequences for taxpayers.

He also questioned whether the accelerated wind-down of Nama was necessary and called for greater debate on the issue.

Financial results covering the period to the end of June revealed that for the first time since its inception, Nama has written up the value of its assets.

The agency recorded an impairment credit of €25m in the first half of the year based on expectations of higher earnings from assets.

An impairment credit is the opposite of an impairment charge which reflects funds set aside to cover bad loans.

In the same period last year, Nama recorded an impairment charge of €137m.

Profit for the opening six months of the year came in at €473m, an increase of €15m on the same period in 2014.

Nama generated €3.47bn in cash through the sale of assets to the end of June.

It also redeemed €2.75bn of senior bonds to add to the €9.1bn redeemed last year.

As of the end of last month, €21.1bn, or 70% of the total senior debt originally issued to acquire loans from the banks had been redeemed.

Nama’s board has set a target to redeem at least 80% of its senior debt, approximately €24bn, by the end of 2016.