STAFF vacancies must be addressed to ensure the States is maximising its resources, says Deputy Sam Maindonald.
The Home Department member said the issue needed to be looked at quickly because too much pressure was being put on some members of staff working in under-staffed departments.
And she fears that the fundamental spending review, which is expected to be completed next summer, will not necessarily result in action being implemented quickly enough.
‘At the moment we have got a number of staff vacancies, which is increasing pressure across departments. It means staff are having to do their job plus more and that not only puts pressure on them but on their families and everything else.’
Deputy Maindonald felt there was a greater possibility of cross-departmental working that could fix the problem.
She said that, too often, civil servants were tied to operating in one department when it was quite feasible that they could help out in others.
‘The fundamental spending review is addressing this question and I just feel that, until that happens, we are not being effective enough because we have some people working far too hard and some people just doing their job nine to five, for example, without any pressure.
‘These reviews need to get going so we can start to effectively move people to where we need them.
‘The problem I’ve got is that when the review comes out, things are not going to happen immediately.
‘Nothing will probably change until a year afterwards and that is me being optimistic if the departments cooperate. Some departments will want to keep bums on seats and Treasury and Resources may find that not every department will want to cooperate as much as others.
‘I’m not happy about the time lines. In business it would happen overnight and we would be doing something now, but with the way the States operates, we are talking about two years.’
Treasury minister Charles Parkinson hoped the review would also identify potential efficiencies within the States and which services could be prioritised.
‘It will look at cross-departmental efficiencies where the same sort of work is being done in more than one department and whether it could be done more efficiently if the services were combined,’ said Deputy Parkinson.
He was also eager to find out just how many States jobs were available.
‘I’ve been trying to find out what the level of vacancies is in the States for a while but no one seems to collect the data centrally.
‘We know about our own departments, but only about others through anecdotal evidence.
‘I think it will form part of the fundamental spending review because the States continues to operate without those missing staff, so it does beg the question how much we need them – but it also could be the case that we do need them and we are operating with unacceptable risk or imposing unacceptable strain on our other staff.’
Article posted on 11th August, 2008 - 2.29pm
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