From Kevin Keen.
I WOULD like to respond to Peter Body’s comments (JEP, 13 May). I certainly did not start off by being angry about public spending; this anger has grown as year after year forecasts for spending have increased.
Reading almost weekly reports in the JEP about waste and delay by the States also does little to calm me down. Even the States Treasurer has admitted that the present system is incapable of controlling spending, which should concern all taxpayers including Mr Body.
Remember that between 1996 and 2006 day-to-day running expenditure of the States has increased by 96% from £237 million to £465 million per year. Double the rate of inflation! I was in Jersey in 1996 and remember that we had perfectly acceptable public services back then, so where has all this extra money gone?
More worrying than that is a comparison of the 2006-11 Strategic Plan and the 2008 Business Plan shows that the Council of Ministers will substantially exceed their spending forecasts over the period of this plan. This is after the ‘reinvestment’ of the £20 million per year of efficiency savings and economising by getting rid of school milk. Will public services really be that much better as a result of all this extra spending? I severely doubt it. Does this make me angry? You bet! I was relying on the ministerial system to get a grip of this.
Mr Body says that no ideas are put forward as to what can be done. Well, he is wrong on this as well. I for one spent many hours researching ideas as to how the States might save money. My letter to the Chief Minister did not even get a reply from him. JEP readers put numerous ideas forward in the Public Purse campaign. What happened to those? Well, a committee was formed to look at them and that is the last we ever heard.
Islanders would be a lot less angry if the States became more realistic in their communication, accepted feedback, tackled waste decisively and always remembered they are spending our money. Vue des Champs, Clos de la Porte, St John.
Why I am getting angry
From Kevin Keen.
I WOULD like to respond to Peter Body’s comments (JEP, 13 May). I certainly did not start off by being angry about public spending; this anger has grown as year after year forecasts for spending have increased.
Reading almost weekly reports in the JEP about waste and delay by the States also does little to calm me down. Even the States Treasurer has admitted that the present system is incapable of controlling spending, which should concern all taxpayers including Mr Body.
Remember that between 1996 and 2006 day-to-day running expenditure of the States has increased by 96% from £237 million to £465 million per year. Double the rate of inflation! I was in Jersey in 1996 and remember that we had perfectly acceptable public services back then, so where has all this extra money gone?
More worrying than that is a comparison of the 2006-11 Strategic Plan and the 2008 Business Plan shows that the Council of Ministers will substantially exceed their spending forecasts over the period of this plan. This is after the ‘reinvestment’ of the £20 million per year of efficiency savings and economising by getting rid of school milk. Will public services really be that much better as a result of all this extra spending? I severely doubt it. Does this make me angry? You bet! I was relying on the ministerial system to get a grip of this.
Mr Body says that no ideas are put forward as to what can be done. Well, he is wrong on this as well. I for one spent many hours researching ideas as to how the States might save money. My letter to the Chief Minister did not even get a reply from him. JEP readers put numerous ideas forward in the Public Purse campaign. What happened to those? Well, a committee was formed to look at them and that is the last we ever heard.
Islanders would be a lot less angry if the States became more realistic in their communication, accepted feedback, tackled waste decisively and always remembered they are spending our money.
Vue des Champs, Clos de la Porte, St John.
Article posted on 15th May, 2008 - 3.00pm