What’s happened to the £10 million spent on States efficiency?

Thursday 21 May 2015

Questions are being asked about what has happened to £10 million that was allocated to a project to reform the public sector and boost efficiency four years ago.

The States spending watchdog are looking into the project, which was meant to set up the “building blocks” for a more streamlined public sector by 2014.

Disclosures under the new Freedom of Information Law have shown that of the money allocated, £6 million was spent between 2012 and the start of this year. The review – which is expected to summon senior civil servants and politicians to answer questions – will focus on where that cash went.

“Some reform has taken place but not obvious, huge amounts of it,” said Public Accounts Committee chairman Andrew Lewis.

“We want to find out where the money has gone, what it’s been spent on and what has been achieved.”

The committee is aiming to report back before the States debate the financial plan for the next few years, which is likely to flesh out proposals for job cuts, a new health charge and service cuts to help fill a £130 million deficit.

The 2012 reform programme began after the States then-HR director Mark Sinclair said publicly that their HR systems and work practices were stuck in the 1970s and 1980s, and that the organisation was “haemorrhaging money” as a result.

A key criticism at the time was that the public sector pay progression system rewarded people who stayed with the organisation for a long time, not those who worked hardest or performed best.

The project was given a deadline of 2014 to come up with various things including an implementation plan for E-gov, leadership training, performance management systems, a review of terms and conditions and reviewing health workers’ pay bands.