UK government defends bonuses paid to staff of collapsed firm Bulb

theguardian.com:

The UK government has defended a decision to pay millions of pounds in bonuses to staff at the collapsed energy supplier Bulb, despite the fact that it has been effectively nationalised as part of a bailout that could cost taxpayers £2.2bn.

Quarterly “retention bonuses” were deemed necessary to prevent an exodus of staff that could have scuppered efforts to keep the business afloat while a buyer is found, multiple sources familiar with the situation said.

“The alternative is that hundreds of people leave and you won’t be able to sell it,” one Whitehall source said.

“You can’t provide energy to people if there’s nobody working at the company.”

Bulb Energy, which has more than 1.5 million customers, is currently run by the consultancy Teneo, appointed under the “special administration” scheme after the energy supplier became the largest of more than 20 to collapse under the weight of sky-high energy prices.

The arrangement is the first test for a system designed to kick in when an energy supplier is too big for its customers to be transferred immediately to a rival.

Under the arrangement, a court appointed Teneo to run the day-to-day operations on behalf of the government, which is funding the costs. The financial advisory firm Interpath has been drafted in to run Bulb’s parent company, Simple Energy.

The decision to pay quarterly bonuses, first reported by the Financial Times, is understood to rest with Interpath because payroll is managed through Simple Energy.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “Bulb’s administrators have set up an employee retention scheme in order to maintain operational effectiveness and support to customers.

“The special administrator of Bulb remains legally