ONE of the unexpected outcomes of the chaos that was the capital prioritisation and funding debates in the States last week was the revelation that islanders might be forced to pay for blood tests because Health and Social Services can’t or won’t manage its budget.
It is one of the clearest indications of how woefully inadequate government is proving at living within its means.
When consultants Tribal Helm highlighted that a financially profligate culture was allowed to flourish within the public sector, it was merely scratching the surface.
The Health minister made three revealing points: the first was that the increase proposed by Treasury in its £100m.-plus allocation for next year was not enough to cover current costs.
The others were that it could not therefore extend services and that it might have to start charging for services that it currently provides.
Like other States departments, such comments indicate that Health is not in the real world such as that occupied by Lloyds Bank – thankfully avoiding significant redundancies locally – and others where financial discipline is understood and followed.
Before HSSD asks for more, thereby robbing other departments, or effectively charging islanders twice as users and taxpayers, it should set out what it has done to cut costs.
That includes stripping out excess staff, flattening its management bureaucracy and stopping paying film-star wages to temporary locums by instead engaging full-time employees.
This goes for all departments as well, of course.
For while politicians weep crocodile tears about how financially stringent times are, the cost of staff is rising remorselessly and the headcount creeps steadily upwards.
And unlike the rest of the world, where redundancy is reality and index-linked final salary pensions are just a memory, the States of Guernsey’s response to ‘stringency’ is to seek ever more money from islanders.
It really cannot continue this way.
Threatening to cut services rather than cut costs makes government look feeble. Few local organisations will have escaped making economies and they know that it can and has to be done.
For the States to be so out of step merely makes politicians look incompetent – or weak.
Article posted on 4th July, 2009 - 2.30pm
One Article Comment
Here we are banging on about the final salary pension again.
Since the Opinion writer always seems to know what a drag it is, maybe they can furnish us with the numbers.
What are the mean and median pensions received for people retiring now?
How is the deficit calculated? Is it the old chestnut whereby all pensions for current employees are worked out as if they were retiring this year and this is compared to a yearly charge?
How well has the fund been managed? Were there contribution holidays by the States? If so, why?
Why is the Guernsey Press hellbent on wanting pensioners to live in poverty?
Report abuse