Consensus may have to go to stop spending anarchy
Tuesday 18th May 2010, 2:30PM BST.
THE chief minister doubts the States can take control of its rocketing expenditure under the current system of government.
Deputy Lyndon Trott yesterday gave his backing to warnings from Treasury minister Charles Parkinson, who said the consensus system was failing because deputies were not accepting responsibility.
Deputy Parkinson (pictured) said that if departments continued to act without control then consensus government would have to be changed to impose discipline.
‘We absolutely have to get a better grip on this,’ said Deputy Parkinson, who spoke of being ‘horrified’ by the ‘deeply unsatisfactory situation’.
‘We have to persuade them to adopt responsibility. If they won’t, then in my view consensus government will have failed.’
- Read the full story in the Guernsey Press. See below for subscription details.
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
Island Life
All about Guernsey
Ambassador of the Year 2011
History & Heritage
Visitor Information
Guernsey's government
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
Useful Links
Committee presidents put themselves forward to do the job.
They are paid extra to do the job.
Any President who fails to keep within his budget should face an automatic vote of no confidence in which he will have the opportunity to convince the rest of the Assembly that he should stay in post.Members of his own Committee must abstain
Report abuse
In the above article Charles Parkinson is reported as stating that although the Home Office gets finances for 177 police officers that they currently only have 160 due to recruitment problems. It also alleges that the money for the 17 officer vacancies is wasted, with the negative and misleading headline that ‘States Departments are paying for staff who don’t exist’ . The article then goes on to explain that the money is used to pay overtime for the current staff employed and somehow this is wrong. Who does he think is going to be doing the work if they are short-staffed? The officers currently employed are not going to be covering extra shifts if they are not paid! Where is this money supposed to come from. It is surely a false economy and in my view creative accounting.
What the island should be looking at is why recruitment and retention is such a problem – not making it worse!
Report abuse
I’m not sure why Parkinson and Trott have to contend that consensus government is at fault here. Neither of them forwarded a form of government as an alternative. Party politics has been shown in England to run up huge public debt. The only system that can be shown to work is dictatorship. However I truly believe that consensus can get the better of this problem if properly implimented.
To suggest that consensus government is not working is like saying that an adjustable spanner dosen’t fit.
Rays suggestion is excellent, though I would add that the chief exec position should be given to the deputy chief exec if a vote of no confidence is given. The current chief exec being placed below current deputy chief exec.
One thought on Chief exec remuneration which I believe is causing a problem is the practice in the civil service of basing pay on the amount of staff that they control. They have therefore an incentive to employ as many people as possible.
Report abuse
Makes you laugh, Dave Jones was explaining recently how our “consenus government” was the envy of the world. Now another minister claims it may have to go…… so joined up eh!
Report abuse
Yes, Steven, I’m all in favour of a dictatorship – so long as I am the dictator.
Another nonsense is Molly’s point about police overtime; at least I think it is nonsense, because even with all the police overtime the services provided were truncated. Don’t you remember that they could not provide policemen on the beat?
At any rate the problem seems to warrant a closer examination.
Report abuse
Do we really need 177 police officers for an island our size?
Put an immediate cap on the current 160.
My experience of States departments is that they are all overmanned little empires that will expand as much as they are allowed to expand. The police force is a prime example.
Report abuse
Steven – sound stuff.
UK has had for many years the cabinet government many crave for us, yet that has simply got them a bit further up s*** creek. Now they have cobbled together an aliance of parties (centre-right consensus, like us?) to build themselves a paddle, while some here are hoping to go the other way by building a cabinet (a waste of wood on a sinking boat, methinks – deckchairs, Titanic).
Report abuse
David Jones believes that Guernsey’s
‘consensus’ government is the envy of the world.
Mr Jones have you read the Wales Audit Office report on Guernsey good governance results – survey of States deputies/non-States members Principle 6: Local people, partners and other stakeholders to ensure robust accountability, prepared by the Auditor General for the States of Guernsey Public Accounts Committee under an agreement with the States of Guernsey.
The Welsh seem to understand their system of government better than Guernseymen and they also seem to have a higher opinion of it and a higher regard for it. Could Welsh government [a part of the hated UK] actually be better than Guernsey? Or maybe Wales just isn’t part of this world.
Report abuse
coyote – I am sure that Dave Jones has read every word of the WAO Report. However, like many, he thinks that it is fundamentally flawed.
It is quite apparent that they started with preconceptions and based their assessments on assumptions that do not fit with our system. If you try to see whether apples have the features of an orange, you are bound to conclude that an apple fails to satisfy the test of being an orange.
Also, I think that you will find that the WAO has a pretty low reputation back in the UK. A quick google should reveal reports of fundamental mis-management within their own office.
Report abuse