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A review of how well the performance of the island's CEO and top civil servants' is being measured and managed has opened.
Launched by the Public Accounts Committee, a group of politicians responsible for scrutinising spending and governance in the civil service, the review will examine the current situation and also aim to establish whether previous recommendations to improve performance management across government have been acted on.
The panel will gather written evidence, as well as holding public hearings and private briefings with key officers, before publishing a report detailing their findings and recommendations.
Their work will aim to build on a report by the previous PAC, who examined the OneGov reforms made under former CEO Charlie Parker and associated new performance management processes.
PAC Chair Deputy Lyndsay Feltham said: "A robust system of performance management is key to holding government accountable and encouraging better performance, streamlining and culture across departments and employees."
Pictured: Deputy Feltham hopes the new review of how senior government officials perform in their roles will encourage better performance across all departments.
It emerged during a PAC hearing in February that CEO Suzanne Wylie was working without any performance targets, one year into the role.
These targets - known as 'key performance indicators' or 'KPIs' - were due to be set by the end of February. The following month, however, the Chief Minister admitted that this deadline had been missed.
Around two weeks later, Mrs Wylie handed in her resignation notice to the Chief Minister.
The previous government came under strong criticism when Express revealed that Chief Executive Charlie Parker, who led the government from 2018 before being instructed to leave in 2020, did not have any KPIs eight months into the job.
The situation was only partially rectified in November 2018 - after a landmark challenge by Express under the Freedom of Information Law revealed that Mr Parker’s contract allowed him to write his own job description.
That same day, the government announced that Chief Minister John Le Fondré had set seven “strategic objectives” for the CEO, and that a world-leading business psychologist, who Express uncovered that Mr Parker had previously worked with, had been appointed to assess his progress against these.
Those objectives, which included “deliver One Government” and “lead organisational change”, came under fire for being vague.
Mr Parker did, however, commit to report back to the States Assembly at six-month intervals on his major restructuring of government, which was blighted by unrest among staff and concerns over the number of highly paid consultants being brought in from the UK.
Ms Wylie was not asked to provide any reports.
The Chief Minister said in a statement that work was underway to "assess the role of the CEO going forward", while Mrs Wylie said in her resignation letter: "There is much political debate on the role of the CEO and my departure will also open the opportunity to assess if it should be changed and to what degree."
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1. Why was bullying and harassment in the Government Departments, particularly Health not acknowledged or addressed by the previous CM and Suzanne Wylie? Why did it take an anonymous letter (craftily sent to Ministers and Media so it couldn't be buried and swept under the carpet) to get everyone to sit up and officially take notice?
2. Why is no evidence being provided by "Bullied" Civil servants about their latest allegations against the current Government.
The rot has pervaded all levels and needs to be cut out and the civil service needs to be trimmed drastically. The red tape and beaurocracy they encourage ( to justify there existences) is phenomenal and Suzanne Wylie came from a similar background.
No doubt a lot has gone on behind the scenes but the current Chief Minister must hold firm and tackle the Civil Service vested interests head on
Whilst our CEO works out her notice, the Chief Minister and her must have "heart to heart" discussions and the full truth revealed.