NEW Confederation of Guernsey Industry chairman Richard Battersby wants to see a smaller civil service.

In this year’s Confederation of Guernsey Industry supplement, which is free with today’s Guernsey Press, Mr Battersby (pictured), a director of Aiglle Flight Support after moving to the island in 1996 following a successful career as a venture capitalist, said there needed to be a debate on what public services could be delivered more efficiently by the private sector.

‘I have worked in and owned businesses both in the finance industry and in other private sector areas. All my experience tells me that things work better if people do not have substantial costs imposed on them from above. So it should be with governments, who have the ability to spend other people’s money more or less at will and usually do so very badly.

‘There needs to be a debate about where government administration is going and to review what services can more properly and more cheaply be done by the private sector, with a consequent reduction in States employee headcount so those people can be redeployed to the private sector.’

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