IF THERE is comfort to be found within the devastating conclusions of the Tribal report into States inefficiencies it is that such a high proportion of the 107 fixes identified are painless.

Not for the civil servants and politicians, of course, who must set about knocking down the walls of the operational silos within which they prefer to operate, but for islanders as a whole.

Three-quarters of the savings are internal changes to the structure of the States. It is the remaining quarter that will trouble islanders with cuts where it hurts: schools, college subsidies, bus fares and States home loans, for example.

If the proportions were reversed, islanders could expect major cuts in public services across the board to get near the £70m. Tribal total.

Instead, the wanton inefficiencies and duplications of which this newspaper has long complained, mean that there are plenty of easy, quick and lucrative wins.

Most will not even be noticed by anyone outside Sir Charles Frossard House.

Chief among these are the improvements identified in HR, IT, finance and procurement.

A single HR unit, for example, could lead to savings of £1.3m. over five years. Better sickness management by that unit saves £1.9m.

And so it goes on. By ridding the States of its fragmented power bases, Tribal sees savings of millions.

It is another area rife for change. Instead of umpteen phone systems, the States should have one central system. Not only would it be easier to maintain but more functional to boot. And save £530,000.

The list goes on. And in case after case the answers are just common sense.

Which begs the question: why did it take a £450,000 report to state the obvious. Which senior civil servants and politicians have lobbied for efficiencies and who has blocked the way to protect their fiefdom?

And can the island have any confidence that those same opponents of the reformation will now convert to a new faith?

For the pressure to cut where it really hurts the public – in real world services – will only increase if the silos hold firm.