EXCLUSIVE: Government watchdog sets sights on pay czar

Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP Chairman Elizabeth Warren briefs reporters on the latest news of her agency, which oversees the government's disbursement of billions of dollars to U.S. banks and the auto industry by the Troubled Assets Relief Program, at the Reuters Financial Regulation Summit in Washington April 27, 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. bailout watchdog has her eye on the "pay czar" charged with vetting the packages of some of Wall Street's top earners.

Elizabeth Warren, head of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the government's financial bailout program, is intent on ensuring taxpayers get to see how their money may be adding zeroes to those paychecks.

Warren told Reuters she is pleased the government's pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, is planning to publicly release his rulings on the contracts for the top 25 earners at firms that have received the biggest government bailouts.

But she wants more. She said Feinberg has an obligation to detail how taxpayer dollars are being used to pay key workers at bailed out firms.

"If, as he says, he wants the rulings to serve as a model, there needs to be full accountability for his decisions and a clear understanding of the metrics and goals he's using," she told Reuters on Friday.

Feinberg, during speaking engagements over the past couple weeks, has said he will avoid putting specific names next to dollars when revealing his decisions.

Feinberg has talked of the difficulty of giving the public enough information to judge the validity of his decisions, while protecting employees who do not want their neighbors knowing their salaries.

Warren said the former concern outweighs the latter but declined to say if names should be attached to specific amounts.

"I think that when companies are asking for taxpayer help, the expectations of privacy change," she said.

"They no longer operate in a world in which their pay decisions are relevant only to the shareholders of the company," she said.

Feinberg did not have an immediate response to a request for comment.

Warren, a Harvard law professor who has gained a reputation for grilling top policymakers while maintaining a sunny disposition, and her panel, have oversight responsibilities for Feinberg's activities as the pay czar.

Her staff met with Feinberg's staff in June and has recently been trying to arrange another briefing.

Feinberg is operating out of an office at the U.S. Treasury Department with a handful of Treasury employees, a few people from his private practice Feinberg Rozen, and a couple academic consultants.

He is not being paid a salary for his work as pay czar but is operating with a budget from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Feinberg is in the middle of a 60-day window to approve or renegotiate the pay contracts for the highest earners at seven firms that have received large taxpayer bailouts, including Bank of America, Citigroup and American International Group.

The other firms are Chrysler, General Motors, GMAC and Chrysler Financial.

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski in Washington with additional reporting by Steve Eder in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)