IT used to be a truth universally acknowledged that the States is a bloated, wasteful, inefficient organisation, that senior civil servants are overpaid and that States Members have failed to get to grips with spending in any kind of meaningful way.
On Friday, though, that all chan-ged with the news from Auditor General Chris Swinson that, actually, the fat is gone. His report concluded that any more cuts to spending would mean cuts in services or more charges for them — and that senior officers were actually paid less, not more, than their private sector counterparts.
Had all this come from the Council of Ministers, or a Scrutiny panel intent on making a political point, you could happily dismiss it as politicking in election year and pay it no attention.
But the fact that it comes from Mr Swinson tends to add it a little more in the way of credibility — he’s not been afraid of having a pop at ministers in the past, having pointed out that just over £4m of the alleged £15m savings actually came from ministers misleading, spinning or lying.
And his CV, which includes sitting on the UK Audit Commission, heading the UK Institute of Chartered Accountants, and being a senior partner at a major UK accountancy firm, tends to back up his standing.
The report isn’t all glowing for ministers — Mr Swinson points out that public sector staff are paid 23% more than their private sector counterparts, that there is still resistance to handing over States-owned property to Property Holdings, and that the States have too much involvement in commercial activities that would be better run by a publicly owned company.
But the report also has a knock-on effect for the elections, namely this — it won’t be enough any more to glibly stand up at the hustings, propose a whole series of new initiatives, and say you’ll pay for them by ‘cutting back on States waste’.
Candidates will actually have to come up with firm proposals about how their manifesto commitments would be funded.
For that, I wait with bated breath. It’s one thing to stand up in front of potential voters and say you’ll do X, Y and Z and pay for it with invisible money. It’s another thing, and much more honest, to tell them how you will tax them as well.
ON the same subject, could the Transport Minister be worried about elections? Might the prospect of having to go back to the voters this year be playing on his mind?
Is it possible that he’s just a little nervous?
I only ask because he managed to raise the subjects of elections and electioneering during three entirely different debates in the States last week, none of which had any obvious link to the polls. That suggests to me, if nothing else, a certain amount of preoccupation.
For the record, the subjects were as varied as the proposed working party on department structure, third party planning appeals and the Legal Deposit Law.
If I’m right, he wouldn’t be the only St Helier Deputy with an eye on the polls. Deputy Geoff Southern reached into the back of the cupboard and pumped up two of the oldest political footballs in history before strolling on to the pitch for a kickaround by lodging propositions on school milk and the town park. I’m sure they’ll have fun with those two little beauties before the elections — all we need now is someone to bring a proposal on the passport stamp and dog mess on the pavements and we’ll have the full set.
AN apology . . . if you were at the Chamber of Commerce lunch on Wednesday, and if you were sitting at the back of the room, then your enjoyment of the speech by Education Minister Mike Vibert may have been marred by a muffled giggle.
I’m sorry about that. I tried to keep it in but I couldn’t manage.
It wasn’t the speech itself — the ideas about foundation degrees at Highlands College were excellent and well-received, and the idea of breaking down barriers between sixth-form colleges to offer more choice to students made pretty good sense, even if the process started when I was doing my A-levels back in the mid-1990s.
But the Senator’s description of himself as ‘something of a champion for early years education’ was a step too far. And his declaration that the current system for early years education, whereby half our 3-to-4-year-olds get free nursery education, while the other half have to pay, ‘needs to be resolved as soon as possible’ stuck in the throat a little.
Given that the situation has not changed much since Senator Vibert took over the Education presidency five years ago, exactly how soon is ‘as soon as possible’?
IN case this week’s column sounds a bit negative in tone, it’s a good time to pay tribute to some great work by Senator Vibert’s department. Next week, Jersey’s cricketers will be taking on teams from Japan, Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Botswana and Singapore in the World Cricket League Division 5 championship staged right here in the Island. It’s the soft side of politics, for sure, but it’s a great example of a department taking a long-term approach, and doing a good job for the Island.
Article posted on 19th May, 2008 - 3.00pm
One Article Comment
dear ben,
your comments on government spending must have came from god, perhaps Mr Swinson has a direct line to him.if he has not the detail of government spending any buisness man would tell you, you have nothing at all.