The States is recruiting a new senior civil servant to lead Economic Development (ED), as it attempts to restore accountability to a public service dogged by costly failures and questions over its ability to deliver.
The Chief Officer for Economic Development will be responsible for turning ED’s priorities into action, with recruitment now underway.
The role is part of Chief Executive Boley Smillie’s plans to reintroduce a Chief Officer for each of the States’ principal committees, giving each one civil servant responsibility for delivery.
Mr Smillie said the changes would be made within the existing civil service headcount, rather than by expanding the workforce.
He said: “A strong economy underpins so much of what we want to achieve as an island, making this one of the most important leadership roles in the public service.”
He added that the appointment would help ensure economic policy was translated into “tangible results”.
Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller, ED President, said the committee had set an ambitious work plan and needed clearer accountability to maintain momentum.
She said: “Bringing together our strategic and operational priorities, with clearer lines of accountability and ownership, will be crucial to delivering our ambitious plans.”
But the latest recruitment drive comes against a backdrop of longstanding questions about how effectively the States is managed.
Change of direction
The chief officer model was scrapped in 2019 under former chief executive Paul Whitfield, who introduced a centralised senior leadership structure intended to support committees across government.
Mr Smillie is now reversing that approach, arguing that the civil service’s leadership structure should reflect the political system, in which individual committees are responsible for setting priorities and answering to the States Assembly.
The push for reform follows a series of expensive public sector failures, including the £21m MyGov project, which wasted millions of pounds without delivering the promised improvements.
ED has had its own controversies, including the future of the States-funded Digital Greenhouse, but has largely escaped the spotlight over the States’ biggest project failures.
Accountability under scrutiny
In January, deputies unanimously backed a push for organisational reform, including clearer accountability, stronger performance and greater scrutiny of the civil service’s leadership.
However, the reform programme has itself faced questions over transparency, with Deputy Marc Laine pressing for published terms of reference and regular progress reports so deputies and the public can judge what is changing and whether it is working.
The latest appointment is one step towards Mr Smillie’s proposed new structure.
Whether clearer lines on an organisational chart translate into better results for islanders remains the bigger test, but one that Mr Smillie – and others – will be hopeful about.
