MPs slam 'irresponsible' Home Office bonus culture The MPs said the Home Office should impose a moratorium on staff bonuses until a review had been carried out. The report said: "With the current financial pressures on the Home Office and the increased public scrutiny of bonuses it is irresponsible of the Home Office to continue to pay out very significant sums in staff bonuses despite poor performanc in many areas. We recommend that no further bonuses should be paid until a thorough review of performance against the whole range of Home Office activity has been undertaken. The £6,524,712 total for 2012-13 represented a rise of more than £1.2 million - or 13 per cent - on the amount paid out to Home Office staff in bonuses in 2009-10. The bonus pot for senior civil servants was £280,000 in 2011-12, the report said, down £3,500 on the previous year. Members of the committee also voiced concern about the way the Home Office oversees procurement by the police. It said the current picture was "dismal" and forces were making "next to no use" of a central hub that was designed to save the taxpaper money by negotiating better prices from suppliers for the 43 forces in England and Wales. The report repeated the committee's long-standing concerns about the botched e-Borders contract, which was intended to set up a new computer system to record the details of very passenger in and out of the country. It has been in development for more than a decade, and cost the taxpayer £1.3 billion, but is still not fully operational. MPs said they were "appalled" by the handling of the matter, especially because little detail has emerged about the debacle because of confidentiality agreements surrounding a legal action with the former contractor, Raytheon Systems Limited. Keith Vaz, the chairman of the committee, said: "It is irresponsible that the Home Office has continued to pay big bonuses despite presiding over many failures. We should end the culture of rewarding failure. He added that procurement remained a "fundamental problem" for the Home Office. "The Government needs to issue guidance immediately in order to ensure that both, the police have the best equipment and the public get value for money," said Mr Vaz. A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Office is succeeding in cutting crime, reducing immigration and securing the UK from terrorism at the same time as reducing expenditure. Staff who make exceptional contributions to the work of the Home Office are eligible for special one-off payments - the majority of staff given payments during 2012-13, the year of the London Olympics, received less than £500.