Civil service reforms are millions of pounds behind schedule

Thursday 07 November 2019

Deputies have refused to give Policy & Resources access to extra funds to implement civil service reforms, in a vote which sheds light on political doubt that ambitious £10million-a-year savings plans can ever be realised.

Last year, P&R set out a range of initiatives which the committee said could deliver over £20million in savings across the next three years.

States of Guernsey Chief Executive Paul Whitfield also announced that 200 jobs would be cut as part of an organisational redesign that would improve how the public service functions. 

In practice, less than £2million of savings were achieved this year and the six initiatives which fall within P&R's oversight (from Organisational & Service Design through to the Revenue Service) fell short of their forecast target by £3.1million.

Pictured: The civil service, which is run by Paul Whitfield, is going through a 10-year organisational redesign. 

Deputy Emilie McSwiggan, whose amendment was passed by 22 votes to 16, said the proposed savings were either over-ambitious or ill-informed.

P&R still has £7million available to it in the Transformation & Transition Fund and Deputy McSwiggan said no more money should be added to that pot further without proof that those savings can be made. 

"Less than £2million of savings were achieved this year. In order to achieve the remaining £19.1million forecast last year, the States would have to find a way to save an average of £9.55million in each of 2020 and 2021. There is no indication in the 2020 Budget that anything like that scale or pace of change can be achieved within such a timeframe. 

"Of course it is possible for the States to continue to make savings across the public sector. But given its past track record of delivering savings, and what we know about the current position of the organisation, it is far more likely that these savings will be slow and steady across the years: the £2million achieved this year sets a far more realistic baseline than the £20m forecast for the next two years."

One of the biggest problems with the over-ambitious savings target is that the States now faces a significant financial shortfall which will need to be covered through other savings or revenue-raising measures, such as taxes. 

Pictured: P&R wanted delegated authority to approve funding from the Transformation and Transition Fund for Public Service Reform by £1million to £3.1million.

"We have to be honest about this because the States, in January 2020, will debate the funding pressures Guernsey is likely to face from now on, for at least the next couple of decades," said Deputy Yerby. "If we allow ourselves and the public to believe that there are tens of millions of pounds that can be stripped out of the public sector quickly – that is, in time to meet those pressures head-on – then we will fail to confront the real tension between the public demand for more and better services, and the public demand for the same or lower taxes. 

"Giving P&R the delegated authority to invest up to £10m over two years might seem like an attractive prospect if savings of over £20million can be achieved within three years (as forecast in the 2019 Budget). However, the rate of savings in 2019 has been much slower than forecast, and the Budget offers no evidence to suggest that this will increase materially in 2020. 

"This amendment proposes an alternative, in which P&R can apply its existing delegated authority to a wider range of Public Service Reform-related initiatives, in line with what it considers to be the most pressing priorities."

Pictured top: Deputy Emilie McSwiggan.