How the States has squandered your cash
Thursday 26th March 2009, 2:30PM GMT.
THE States has been wasting taxpayers’ money for years, according to a scathing new report.
The damning verdict is contained within a summary report on phase one of the Fundamental Spending Reviews, and confirms many islanders’ worst fears.
Not only has the States allowed a ‘financially profligate culture’ to flourish, the review carried out by consultants Tribal Helm also found that some departments had been providing ‘gold-plated services’ in areas where there was no need for any government involvement.
Tribal Helm, appointed by Treasury and Resources at a cost of £350,000 to carry out the reviews, had been tasked with analysing the States to see how each department and function across the organisation could save money by working more efficiently.
Phase one of the review, which was carried out over a six-week period at the start of this year, identified a total of 298 potential areas where improvements in efficiency could be made – 152 of which were specific to individual departments.
‘Phase one of the Fundamental Spending Review of the States of Guernsey’s expenditure has revealed an organisation with financial, structural and cultural characteristics that has contributed to the less-than-efficient delivery of services and an inherent lack of evidence-based decision making,’ said the report, which is released today.
The States comes predominately under fire for its lack of budgetary control or joined-up management.
- Further details of the review are expected to emerge at a press briefing being held today.
- You can download the full report as a PDF – click here.
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
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No suprise there then
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As usual for many years , down the drain with our money !!!!!!!
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I doubt if there is a single islander who will be surprised by this. We have widely suspected this to be the case for years.
Its vital that this report is acted on as a matter of utmost urgency ahead of any further changes to the tax regimes as taxpayer’s won’t accept further tax increases until it is.
Most economic issues are currently beyond our control. This one is not!
Unlike many external consultant reports, this £350k could be our best investment in years.
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Treasury and Resources commissioned a 21 page £350,000 report to tell us what we already knew.
I work that out as just over £16,500 per page…I leave it to the reader to decide whether that brings value for money! :-)
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My apologies….this is only phase one….I hope there’s a lot more to come!
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How long before this report is condemned as nonesense by our leaders and betters?
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I haven’t read the detail. Is there anything in this report that many of us have not been saying for decades?
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£350,000 wasted just to state the obvious, an obvious that could easily have been collated from various other sources.
The strength of the Consultant’s report is that it has brought together in one document the evidence of just how the States and Civil Service perform.
Mujh of the report could have been sourced from You Shout and the Editor’s Blog.
When the consultants speak of the absence zero budgeting, that had been featured on at had been featured on You Shout some weeks ago.
So far as supplication of support services are concerned I had set out as long ago as 2005 in the letter section of the Press, the money wasted in Education and throughout the States of functions such as HR.
Lack of links and relationship between departments was a feature in the Wales Audit Office report on the Clinical Block contract.
The lack of a coordinated strategy is something that many have commented on over the past years. Same applies to property and procurement.
Many have mentioned the lack of authority of T and R over expenditure.
One of the gems and the sting is in the section on Pricing and income generating opportunities, otherwise known as screw the consumer until it hurts syndrome. The National Audit Office showed, around 2004, just how much could be raided by adopting what was virtually, UK taxes.
This lot seem to be going further and seeing this screw the taxpayer approach as a virtue.
Paul Le P don’t apologise. The next stage will be the hard sell – use our solutions such as SMART and SAP and pay even more money to us.
Am I alone in wondering why PAC and Scrutiny haven’t been saying the things in this report?
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All very well, in a way; However
Doesn’t this report only emphisise something we either knew or suspected.
But; and a BIG BUT will you the Guernsey people allow this to go on:
To resolve this; they should all be dismissed, then charged with grand larceny of the peoples monies,
It is a sure sign of the corrupt way we the people of Guernsey have been subjected to behind closed doors
If the people do not act now. then it will get even worse, for they will think they are safe to carry on.
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David makes a good point.
We can do little about “credit crunches”, “world recession”, “international failures of supervision”, etc. We can do everything about our own housekeeping if we admit our past failings.
I have letters from deputies denying that there was anything wrong in their departments or that any savings were possible and would I give specific examples. I have little confidence that our current bunch will be any different.
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And they are still at it.
1, Group of States members to China to discuss finance, how is that going to help the island.
2, Suggesting we build new marina in Careening Hard for wealthy boat owners.
3, Buying new aircraft for Aurigny when we could have leased a couple instead.
5, Spending £8 million on an Arts Centre which although is nice to have was not essential.
6, Saving St Andrews and St Sampsons schools which as I understand it was against the outcome of an outside report commissioned by the Education Department, suggesting that saving these schools was not cost effective.
And can you imagine how much income the island would now be profiting from if we hadnt given away our telecoms industry.
I know there are more, and I will await other comments
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There shouldn’t be any further changes to direct or indirect taxation and no capital expenditure until each one of the points raised is thoroughly reviewed and resolved. Stop the “tax and spend” culture and do what the rest of have to…”save then spend”. With only a limited working (tax paying) population and greater numbers of elderly and non-workers we should not have to remove the shirt from our backs just because a few civil servants and politicians don’t know how to tighten their belts!
If this happened in the private sector you can be sure that heads would have rolled and change management would be well underway with immediate and obvious results…Maybe Fred the shred should apply for the CM job?
At last, a real test for the government…time to step up and be counted ladies and gentlemen.
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It is the nature of ‘management consultancy’ that the business employs them to tell the owners what they already suspect. Coming from a professional body makes it more palitable as opposed to hearing it from your colleague who yo uhave hated for years – even though you know she is right.
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I hope the consultants have checked the November/December goods ordering pattern of each States Department.
My brother was always told as the year end approached to spend up the remaining budget otherwise it would be cut next year.
Consequently his office was awash with all sorts of non essential stock and equipment at that time of the year.
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Jackie
This report follows the old consultant approach of the nodding technique. In this you regurgitate the concerns of the gatekeeper (using of course, different wording, but same meaning) and when she or they read it, they nod their head in agreement when they see their own ideas and comment on how good these consultants are.
When this information (actually, softening up) has taken the place the client is ripe for further agreeing to further expensive help in resolving problems they can so easily resolve themselves.
Ray
4.2 Budget Planning and Monitoring suggests they might have twigged or perhaps not as a smart consultant would have stresses the surge of spending at year end. This is what they say:
…funding in departments tends to be done on an historical basis using previous year
budgets plus RPI and additional requests based upon requirements to change the level of service.
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>>This report follows the old consultant approach of the nodding technique<<
Indeed Stephen. This might be the first time in my life that I agree that consultative money is money well spent.
It is possible that the only way that a neutered T&R can get the power it needs to control States spending is to get an independent view.
Having said that I’m unsure whether any of the WAO audit office reccomendations were fully implemented and still not sure what PAC are doing with their new WAO report – it appears to, in part, overlap with what Tribal are doing.
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The problem has been that the island and it’s residents have had it too easy for too long. Times are changing, and although it will be unpopular, people will just have to learn to wait for all the lovely new buildings etc that they want. Times are changing, times are tough, and we have to adjust or go under. Borrowing is not the answer – spend according to means, as any sensible individual does.
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In challenging times it’s obvious to me that government should be reduced at the same rate that it expanded.
Out of interest does anyone have any comparison figures on the years 2009, 1999 and 1989. I’d love to know the the Population vs Cost of government for those 3 years.
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…and how about the well known fact, as admitted to me by a top States executive, that each and every States department spends whatever’s left in it’s budget like water at the end of each year, on any old tosh, just to ensure that they don’t have their budget reduced the following year….
…anyone going to tackle that?
If our States was a Bank, it would be right up there with all the others that have had to be bailed out due to gross mismanagement and short sighted, blinkered thinking.
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Good point Scarlett
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It is my belief that the senior civil servant who commissioned this report is perceptive enough to realise that the strategy of cutting States services to punish the public for requesting the States to cut expenditure is not working.
The better career move is to go for real cutting of States spending, backed up by a consultants’ report. Later, the administration of the cuts will require extra staff and senior civil servants, thus enhancing his chances of empire building and promotion.
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Well done to the States for spending another £350k
of taxpayers money on a report that could have compiled by asking the average man in the street !
How about a radical approach to saving money over the next few years….
STOP SPENDING WHAT YOU HAVEN’T GOT !!!
Just a thought.
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The basic fact of the matter is that a good proportion of the electorate has lost faith in the Government of this island. Hardly surprising really when we have few representatives who are politicians by profession, and fewer still who are prepared to put their heads on the block and say what needs to be said and done without fear or reprisal.
This is one of the major drawbacks of a non-party system. A good overhaul of this inefficient lumbering old monster is overdue..’Acta non verba’
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I’m sorry but most of the posts here are wrong and have been influenced by the GP headline. How many that have posted have actually read this report from start to finish.
This report was intended to identify inefficiencies and of course does not mention the things that are (and they are) being done well.
Can any of the posters here suggest another place in the world that is better run? The average person here pays 18.5p in the pound tax whereas in the UK the average is 37p. I don’t have the figures for other countries or indeed similar sized juristictions but I bet there aren’t that many that beat us. I would be the first to admit that there must be lots of room for improvement but our lot would be in the premier league if points were awarded for VFM.
I write this post because I believe Guernsey people, including the GP, are very quick to criticise and very slow to acknowledge success.
If critisism is merited I think it should be directed at previous administrations that have underinvested and failed to take opportunities for raising revenue. These past administrations have also laid the foundations for the inefficiencies highlighted today in the FSR phase 1 report.
The current house has a mammoth task ahead and in the current climate it won’t all get done but Guernsey will still be a great place to live.
You could have been born in Zimbabwe and really have something to moan about, who knows even some of the GP’s sensational headlines would be justified.
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A UK specialist in Internal Audit, Risk, Assurance and Value for Money joined the States of Guernsey Internal Audit Section as Manager and was later promoted to Director; they were employed for a period of five years.
At the outset the person stated that they had concerns regarding Value for Money and effective Governance, and highlighted that spiralling costs were a severe risk to the Islands economic well-being.
T&R led by Dave Clarke, under the guidance of Lyndon Trott did not consider Governance important and saw no value in VFM, Risk based decision making, or, as they put it in this three hundred and fifty thousand pound report, ‘the golden thread’.
Questions over capital expenditure and efficiencies were raised over and over until the Housing Licence of the specialist expired a few years ago (T&R said that the job was not essential and could not extend the role to 15 years – despite there being no one qualified locally).
Subsequently the Assurance arm of the States was reduced from 7 officers to 0 (Zero). Therefore there was, and remains, no suitably qualified individual to provide assurance to the Select Committee or the States.
Ultimately the responsibility in the neglect of providing Guernsey with effective Governance lies with Dave Clarke, the ex Treasurer, the chair of the then audit and risk committee and Lyndon Trott in his former capacity.
Guernsey could have been, and could still be, one of the most important financial centres at an international level, and have the best social facilities in Europe, however you will always get what you have always had, if you do what you have always done.
I could have saved the States three hundred thousand pounds and provided a comprehensive report to this standard with ease – I dont see where or how this report in itself is good value for money.
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UNSAFE JURISDICTION:
This article and the previous comments completely
vindicate what Landsbanki depositors have been saying since last October that (Guernsey is a unsafe financial juridiction).
If your powers that be are unable to look after their own financial house-keeping how can it be that they are scouring the world to look for more investors in their ‘Safe Well Regulated Financial Jurisdiction’, without putting their own house in order first.
If I were disposed to invest (DEPOSIT) again in Guernsey, I would seriously run a mile.
Makes you think doesn’t it.
SPRINGBOK
lANDSBANKI g20 (EXPATRIATES) Action Group
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While I welcome an investigation of this sort, with less than 300 instances of possible savings – I am not confident that they are working in sufficient detail.
I understand that the report so far suggests more centralisation. Has nobody told them that the massive problems with Human Resources centralisation was one of the main drivers why changes in our government were made. In fact it was decided that the nine departments, each large enough to operate independently could reduce bureaucracy and red tape, and operate more directly. So do we want to return to centralisation? No.
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Just thought I would mention, so please pass it on the the big CM–
British Rail have a few engines and coaches for sale.
I thought perhaps he would like to buy some in case the buses fail, and hell gets covered in ice and snow.
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Back to basics, guys. Be honest with and restore trust from depositor customers who brought billions to this island (and unfortunately not put to good use, courtesy of Mr Trott and Co). Despite serious mismanagement, islanders paid such low taxes for decades thanks to the banking industry, and depositors’ money in particular. Suggest the way forward is to try and revive the badly bruised goose who laid the golden eggs.
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The attitude of Guernsey authorities in managing the Landsbanki crisis is symptomatic of the island’s mismanagement. Every country around the world, except Guernsey, understood that if you do not rescue depositors, there is no trust left in your banking system. Even more so when your flagship industry is banking!!! The choice is between coming clean on this one or seriously thinking about economic reconversion.
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The lack of transparency and openness that States Departments continue to practice (in spite of endless promises to the contrary) also indicates that they knew quite how they were wasting our money. My question is: Why did we do nothing about it?
To use Dan Hannan’s comments at the EU on Tuesday out of context, ‘they knew & we knew, and they knew that we knew’.
As an aside, Mr. Hannan’s speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94lW6Y4tBXs might be rather apposite to the States intended future borrowing.
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The chief Minister claims that Guernsey is a secure centre for financial activity however he cannot even keep his own ship in order. Amazing that such a lot of money was spent on a report which told us what we already knew – where are contros and audits and who decides what is really required? The report reads like something from the profligate days of NASA – who benefited from Gold plated projects – us on the island? visitors? or the contractors who supplied the service?
Beggars belief really! – or maybe not when Junkets to China are all the rage!
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>>This report was intended to identify inefficiencies and of course does not mention the things that are (and they are) being done well.<<
Burdened and soon to be more burdened tax payers aren’t interested in what’s being done well; things are supposed to be done well, that’s what we pay for.
It’s the inefficiencies and savings that we are more interested in
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Strange that all the brain storming, courses etc attended by senior civil servants failed to understand “It’s the inefficiencies and savings that we are more interested in”
Problem is Jackie hat it is easier to shout about what they are doing right (a promotion or and perhaps a bonus might depend on it) than identify problem areas.
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Jackie is absolutely right. Taxpayers have a right to expect efficiency in governance and administration. Where inefficiency is exposed, something needs to be done about it. I say to those who argue that everything in this report was known anyway that they should sit down WITHOUT the report and name the 292 areas found where inefficiency is occurring. I’m personally affected in one ghastly area of Guernsey inefficiency. As a goose living in Hungary, I laid a golden egg in a Guernsey bank account and it was stolen by a fox. My assumption that Guernsey was a well-run financial jurisdiction was wrong. The wilds of Eastern Europe are far safer. Then came the chance for Trott and his “administration” to compensate or assist the 1600 depositors who lost their money in Landsbanki Guernsey, but alas… Well, if I’m a goose, I guess you Guernsey people are ostriches, sticking your heads in the sand while the financial reputation of your island is lost.
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A cursory glance through gov.gg displays the Prison Service organisational chart. Lets have a look shall we at savings.
http://www.gov.gg/ccm/navigation/home-department/prison-service/organisation-chart/
Two Deputy Governors.
What’s that for couldn’t find a place for one of them elsewhere and one had to be seeing out to their retirement? Or is this the part of the culture where top civil servants get a quick boost before retirement to ensure they get the biggest pension possible?
Admin team
5 people? No efficencies there at all?
Principal Officer x2
Can’t be done by one and an underling?
I think I just saved £150k. Next topic sentencing and reform. That will be another million or so per year.
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With the world’s financial big players watching Guernsey’s every move, how badly timed is this damning report on Guernsey’s inability to manage their own financial budgets. What kind of an image are we now portraying to members of the G20 and the rest of the worlds financial markets?
How much publicity and scurrying around have we seen just lately from the Guernsey States to project their brand image and hopefully escape the ignominy of being placed on the ‘black list’?
All of this cosmetic dressing up will be to no avail when the real truth about Guernsey is that through a report commissioned by themselves, at a cost to the Guernsey taxpayer of £350,000, that in-house they are totally uncoordinated and inefficient in managing their own budgets.
Resolve all of your internal financial problems as quickly as you can, the longer this situation continues the more likely it is that you will never recover to compete at the highest level in this increasingly tough financial merry-go-round of world markets.
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How about a deputy, or a small group of deputies getting together, and at question time at each States meeting asking the head of one States department what measures he /she has taken in the previous month to reduce expenditure.
Pick the department randomly so that nobody knows who will have to field that question at the next States meeting.
If the answer is nothing or precious little we can all make a note of it ( and the names of all that Department’s members )for the next election
That might help keep them on their toes
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If you want to know where to make savings in the States department. Ask the works. They will know where the wasted monies are.
Only thing is, they won’t tell you (otherwise they’ll loose thier jobs)
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Springbok – Landsbanki – Yawn!
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Henry
>>So do we want to return to centralisation? No.<<
I don’t accept that Human Resources could not be centralised or even outsourced.
10 years ago “Personnel” became “recruitment”. Personnel has had its role expanded into HR thus creating – another level of unecessary beaurocracy bloat.
Just type in ‘outsourced human resources’ into Google; there are plenty of companies providing that service.
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This comes down to a simple exercise. How much do we make from taxes a year – how much does it cost to run the island. The Island does not cost that much to run (hooray for a small island).
However Guernsey people (I am one) want everything perfect and they want it now. We want all Island schools done up by tomorrow. We need the runway done so bigger planes can land – do we? Did we need such a fancy terminal building? Did we need a marina? States of Guernsey are filled with Guernsey people – and we have got soft and weak, both to internal and external pressures. I remember a time when we donkeys would be stubborn – now we just give in.
I for one think it is about time the people of Guernsey grew some balls and filled the states with strong leaders, rather then leaders we can control just by hanging by banners around the island saying Save our School. Simple question – St Andrews and St Sampsons both want schools, any parents in those parishes willing to fork extra money over?
JC
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You can afford to yawn SDG because it isn’t your money. Fairly TFG (typical for Guernsey) comment. Remember that much of the “taxpayers money” has come from outside the Island from savers like myself and without it you would have in the real world with typical European tax rates and Government debt.
What makes Guernsey so special that it alone, of all European polities, can wash it’s hands of this and think it moral and reasonable. Remember the UK rescued many of your banks; otherwise there would be a lot of pain in Guernsey now.
Think about that SDG if you are up to more than yawning.
Landsbanki saver (or loser)
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Michael Butterley
Yes, your assumption is correct, I can afford to yawn because I didnt deposit my cash somewhere where it wasnt protected.
This whole landsbanki whining reminds me of the story of the 2 squirrels – the squirrel who puts the hard work in at the start and gathers all his nuts whilst the other squirrel does nothing – then when winter comes the squirrel with the nuts is expected to bail out the one with none!
If the savers did their background work and made wiser choices they wouldnt be in this mess now and expect others to bail them out.
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Well said, L. Becham. You’re absolutely right. How come no-one in the States can see this?
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Come off it Butterly what do you know about Guernsey?
Yes they come with their money, and also their bullying ways; with such remarks as if you don’t do as we wish you can be assured we’ll leave; or words to that effect.
And pray where would you go; there isn’t a place in the world where you would be made wholly welcome: as we say later in the year
“We too remember.”
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Disappointed to see more landsbanki bashing…..these people should be supported not criticised. This article was about Trott et al mismanaging our money. That is the central story. The unlucky people who invested with landsbanki are victims of Guernsey politicians taking their money for years as taxes, and then not supporting them, Anyone of a number of local banks could have been the same. Indeed, perhaps if the States Government had just invested a little more wisely 10 years ago when they were advised to set up a compensation scheme, they could have avoided much of the negative comment today. The squirrel that did no work….seems to apply to the Government more that genuine savers.
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Jackie – Of course you have a right to expect excellence in everything that government provides. The practicality of delivering efficiency is always more difficult than the theory. It is therefore unrealistic to expect 100%. It would be more realistic to expect a government that is always looking to improve. This is the very reason that our lot instigated this report.
You and the most of the rest of the posters on this thread (GP included) need to brush the chips off your shoulder and get real to the point I was making in my first post, that is;
The people of Guernsey pay less p/£ tax than the vast majority of the rest of the world. We can therefore deduce by comparison that, although far from perfect, we have an efficient and cost effective government machine.
Talking things down is half the reason we, and the rest of the world, are encountering difficult times.
I shall end this post by offering, in my opinion, a much more important task our states members should look to tackle before looking at improving efficiency. All efforts should now be looking to encourage a much more diverse economy.
Guernsey is great and will be even greater with an economy that is much less reliant on the finance industry.
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Is it me or is our chief Minister starting to sound like that guy from Iran, the one that did the press interviews durring the Gulf war.. ?. Oh what was his name ?.
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All credit to you SDG for your financial acumen.
But I am surprised you should make the effort to beak off from your yawning to reply and not address any of my points.
Your “squirrel” analogy is, well, nuts. I don’t claim any financial expertise but I have worked hard and saved all my working life but made the fatal mistake of putting much of my pension lump sum into Landsbanki Guernsey.
A better analogy is the “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” in Heller’s Catch 22.
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Let’s face it. People entrusted their savings to us or at least our supervision. We took payment for this in the form of taxes. We let them get robbed and we have done nothing. We have to show some character and do what every other country has done: take steps to compensate the victims of our – yes our – greed and folly. We elected the people who failed these savers, we should help those we betrayed and stop braying like asses while our main industry is crumbling. If we do not restore trust we will soon be bust.
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There are far too many civil servants sitting behind desks with little real work to do. They have become too comfortable with the knowledge that they are virtually unsackable. Its high time there was a cull in the civil service and only those that are seen to be efficient kept on. There are too many managers who spend five days a week sucking up to the boss instead of getting on with the job of managing, get rid of the lot of them as they are worthless and a drain on public money.
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SDG: “If the savers did their background work and made wiser choices they wouldnt be in this mess now and expect others to bail them out.”
Unlike the wiser Guernsey resident squirrels who deposited their cash in the local subsidiaries of RBS, Lloyds, HBOS or Northern Rock, eh? Of course, they don’t have to worry, others did bail them out — the UK taxpayer.
“I didnt deposit my cash somewhere where it wasnt protected.”
As Guernsey didn’t have a DCS until a few months ago (and hardly has one now) I take it that you didn’t deposit your cash into *any* Guernsey bank then. Very wise of you.
Of course, if you’re banking elsewhere that means that if that institution has problems you are expecting others to bail you out…
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MELE:-
Sorry about that I mUst have having a trott moment
the right answer is (Iraq) COMICAL ALI
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I have worked in the private sector, run my own successful bussiness and been a civil servant and the idea that civil servants have an easier life or are less efficient is just not true.
I have seen much more waste within the finance sector than I ever saw as a civil servant. I was, while running my own business, a huge critic of the states and the civil service but I realize now that that opinion was based on what I read in the press and not based on reality.
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Stephen John – There are no bonuses in the civil service and promotions happen at the same rate as the private sector, do you honestly think it is otherwise.
Of course it is easier to talk about successes, everyone likes a pat on the back.
Indeed the GP regularly have a page on private sector promotions and achievements. Nothing wrong with a pat on the back, any manager worth his/her salt will tell you what a powerful motivational tool it can be. Most importantly it costs nothing- non monetary compensation is one thing that is efficient.
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Tribal Helm are not telling us anything new. People who work within the public sector know full well that there are inefficiences in the system but the people who have ideas of how to implement these savings are ignored time and time again. There is a lot of hot air and hyperbole around and things are not as bad as portrayed in the media. I think centralised Human Resources is essential as a lot of work is currently doubled up and surely without a good HR everything else is doomed to chaos.
What is the ratio of local senior civil Servants versus licence holders who are imported from the UK at great expense to tax payers with their increased salaries bumped up with housing allowances etc? How many of them have had their licences increased to 15 years already or are hoping to, by supporting Tribal Helm’s reports and feeding them information which will encourage their assertion that they are indeed essential to the island, as locals are incompetent?
Succession planning should be reducing the number of licence holders not increasing them – something which Deputy De Lisle asserted to in the States meeting last week. A company’s greatest asset is its staff and The States i.e. Guernsey plc should be keeping its local staff and shredding its non-essential licence holders, and thereby cutting the staffing budget substantially. You cannot tell me that there are not enough good accountants, IT personnel and Administrators available from the local market. There are; it is just that they are either turned down for the jobs or they don’t apply because they are in better paid jobs in the private sector. It is different with other professions perhaps i.e. teachers, police officers and health staff. There are many good people working for the States and it is about time they were recognised not threatened with job cuts which is feeding the low morale currently pervading many States departments. Low morale = low productivity. This island is in danger of being taken over by people who neither understand or care about our culture but just want to turn us into a mini GB. By all means make the States more efficient but not at the expense of losing our soul.
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One comment on the report says
“1.3.3 Changing Economic Environment
The introduction of the Zero-10 tax regime coupled with the onset of the economic downturn will see a material reduction in tax revenue income for the States.
The States is currently operating at a deficit
and is being sustained only by the depletion of reserves. These reserves will be exhausted by 2011″
I wonder if some of the deputies who read these pages will confirm this and tell us how they wwuld remedy the situation?
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Cliff feels civil servants are no less efficient than the private sector.
That might well be so, but the report and views many of us have had is that there is inefficiency in the civil service.
The report confirms systemic waste of taxpayer money.
But then we might be wrong!!!
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>>The States is currently operating at a deficit
and is being sustained only by the depletion of reserves. These reserves will be exhausted by 2011″<<
trading while insolvent is illegal in the private sector.
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This constant arguing. If the God looks down he will see many Christian people who should know what is right thing to do but they are not doing it. Those people who say they look after the financial matters of Guernsey did not do they job. Someone must take the initiative and see that those who trusted Guernsey with all they money are repaid for the loss.
If not then maybe things are not so good for banks there any more. I got to say my husband have money in the LG to be honest.
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Erc, the reality is that I know much more about Guernsey, at first and second hand than you know about me.
I don’t recognise your quotation, if that’s what it is, or it’s relevance.
Pray, what do you remember “later in the year”?
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I dare say that is quite true Butterly; further to that I do not wish to know anything about you;
The point I made was about our Island not about personal histories.
Do you know about ‘La Manche’ (The Sleeve) The Channel: where only English ships could be transport means No Guernsey ships.
Do you know why we had to go out to Newfoundland to fish to earn enough to live, do you Know why we turned into privateers ( Recognised by the then Queen so long as she got her share.
Why was our language not allowed to be taught in our schools.
There are more down side to history from the UK than you can imagine; do you know about all these actions I write about. or is your life concerned only with MONEY
Incidentely I take it you meant Eric when you headed your reprisal note.
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>>If the God looks down he will see many Christian people who should know what is right thing to do but they are not doing it.<<
I’m not entirely sure threatening the eyes of God upon our fair isle is much of a threat. Sending Bjork to do a concert here might scare politicians into action.
Helpful?
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It is hard to get away from the fact that Guernsey has suffered from poor governance for a very long period of time, but this isn’t a situation unique to the island. Guernsey is run by Amateur Politicians who are a mix of well-intending individuals totally lacking in the necessary skills, and local business types who’s skills may be more suited but with self-interested motivations that are at best questionable. Both groups suffer from crippling myopia. There is a brain-drain whereby the people best-placed to run the island leave at the first opportunity and won’t come back until pensioners, or work for finance and havn’t got time for petty politics.
This, however, is the case with almost all sovereign island states, look at the Caribbean for example with current scandals in Antigua and St.Kitts to name but a few or Iceland where the whole government recently resigned.
You cannot get away from the fact that run y locals, the States will always just muddle through. The island is actually the site of a large plc and could be run as such with a board consisting of a local chairman/director, local board members but non-execs from outside the island offering the knowledge that is so sadly lacking.
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Springbok…., thanks that the fellow.. Comical Alie.. That’s who Trott reminds me of…
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Cliff – you are on cloud cuckoo land if you think civil servants work as hard as private sector employees.
I have worked in both areas, many times, and there is absolutely no comparison.
Private Sector = profit, accountability, shareholders, performance, KPI’s, quick decision making, value for money.
Public Sector = risk aversion, protracted and convoluted decision making, lack of stakeholder KPI concerns, no strategic vision, lazy employees.
The above is a bit of a simplification of course, however there is no comparison in my view between private sector and public sector, similarly, there is no comparison between Guernsey employees and those offshore – those offshore have a far harder time of it, with longer hours, more competitive markets etc.
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Get rid of their extravagant pensions it will save millions.
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Darren
Are you saying all civil servants are lazy or just some. You should name and shame all these departments. I think the private sector have their fair share of slackers too, certainly in my experience. Whatever your answers I would seriously doubt the testimony of someone who claims to have been a civil servant “many times”.
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