Many of top executives in Britain have received controversial pay packets. These include the bonus of ten million pounds earned by Sir Chris Gent, chief executive of Vodafone.

Public anger at 'fat cat' salaries first erupted in 1995 over a pay rise given to Cedric Brown, who was then chief executive of the newly-privatised British Gas.

It's creating a problem of legitimacy

John Plender, Pensions Investment

But the list is long and includes the bonus of �800,00 earned (and then postponed) by Luc Vandevelde, the new boss of Marks and Spencer and bonuses earned by Sir Peter Bonfield and Sir Iain Vallance despite the poor performance of BT.

The bonus and reward system has come under increasing scrutiny and remuneration committees have been set up to independently assess what bonuses executives should receive.

Remuneration committees, which approve executive pay packages, are often made up from non-executive directors. Problems occur for a remuneration committee when an executive's long-term incentive package pays out in a year when company results have not been good.

Unions and shareholders tried to block a �10m 'performance' bonus awarded to Vodafone chief executive Chris Gent, following the takeover of German mobile phone group Mannesmann.

Sir Peter Bonfield

But the impartiality and effectiveness of these committees is being questioned. John Plender, chairman of the Pensions and Investment Research Consultants pressure group believes the link between bosses and remuneration committees is detrimental: "One of the consequences of the way we determine pay in the boardroom at the moment', he says, 'is we have an inflationary ratchet and I think that's actually doing a disservice to business, it's creating a problem of legitimacy".

But companies argue that they must be able to pay top wages in order to attract world class executives.

In fact many of the highest paid executives make most of their large pay packets not through basic pay but by performance related schemes such as share options and annual bonuses.

In Bosses' Bonanza the Money Programme takes an in depth look at the work of remuneration committees. With exclusive behind the scenes we examine the work of these committees and ask whether they are impartial or simply ineffective.