FORMER Western Power managing director David Eiszele, who resigned in controversial circumstances last year, received total payments of $1.148 million in his final six months in the job.
This included a $517,037 termination payment, according to Western Power documents tabled in State Parliament.
Mr Eiszele also received salary and benefits of $226,005 for the six months to December 31 and accrued leave entitlements of $405,793.
His employment contract was due to expire on June 30 2003 but he left early after Western Power questioned the State Government’s electricity reform plans.
In a statement issued last December, Western Power said its board and Mr Eiszele “had agreed that an earlier departure would allow the corporation to put in place new management arrangements for the critical implementation phase of the State Government’s electricity reform plans”.
The planned reforms include the break-up of Western Power into four separate businesses, covering its generation, networks, retail and regional activities, and the introduction of a wholesale market.
The documents tabled in State Parliament showed that Mr Eiszele’s three-year employment contract featured a $395,000 per annum salary package – including $660 for electricity costs through a salary sacrifice arrangement.
This made Mr Eiszele WA’s highest paid public sector executive, though his income was modest compared with many private sector companies.
Chief executives from 39 private sector companies either equalled or surpassed Mr Eiszele’s income, according to WA Business News Book of Lists 2003.
Western Power announced last month that it had appointed Stephen van der Mye as its new managing director.
Mr van de Mye previously ran the National Electricity Market Management Company, which administers and operates the wholesale electricity market in the eastern States.
Mr van der Mye will also be a member of the steering committee that was established earlier this year to implement the planned electricity reforms.
Anne Nolan, acting coordinator of the Office of Energy, chairs the committee.
