‘Adapt or die’
Wednesday 10th February 2010, 3:00PM GMT.
Senator Ben Shenton.
STATES spending has risen by almost 40% in the last five years despite repeated promises that spending would be cut.
Senator Ben Shenton, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, told the Institute of Directors yesterday that without serious changes to public sector pay, the range of services provided by the States and the ‘job for life’ culture in the public sector, there was no prospect of even getting close to the £50m savings target.
He also warned ministers, the public sector and the unions that they would have to ‘adapt or die’ and that the £50m savings target would require more effort and will than they had ever shown before.
Senator Shenton said that since the last time ministers promised savings in 2005 spending had gone up by 38.5% – adding that the job of restraining public spending was one that the States had never come to terms with.
‘I am not sure that the public really understand the problem. ‘In fact, I am not sure that the politicians really understand and I am not sure if some of them care,’ he said.
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So that will be 12% GST then!
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How much did it cost for TLS to attempt to meet Barack Obama??? What a joke!!
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There will be no change to the way things currently work until we start to make States Departments accountable for their cavalier attitude to overspending, if they were at risk of losing the “golden egg” and were held to account the same as private sector bosses – watch the change of attitude, to my knowledge there has been a vast overspend over the last two/three decades and yet no one cares except the the poor old public who get screwed again and again – All Hail the Money God !!!
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I totally agree with Mr Shenton, i am a states worker at the airport and the waste in our department is outragous,since the new director has taken over, 20 new civil servant posts have been added,the cost to the states must be well over a million pounds a year in salaries and pensions,this week we learn they have now taken on a consultant on baggage handling costing tens of thousands of pounds a year what a joke, all these new posts seem to do is push pens and shuffle paper around, spending most of the time on their PCs looking at e bay and other sites, drinking tea and coffee which is paid for by us the tax payer, yes by you and me, some of these civil servants are on 80 grand a year and we still pay for their tea time drinks. Take a good look around when u next go to the airport and you will see half the cleaners standing round doing nothing at the doors, where are their their bosses ,no doubt drinking tea instead of cracking the whip, its about time the dead wood management at the airport had a good shake up and cleared out.
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The public do understand all too well – it is those at the top end of the food chain (the Chief Executives etc) who should be taking a cut in salaries and not the ordinary workers being told they have to tighten their belts. This is where millions of pounds worth of savings can easily be made – do we even need half of these top people?
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My view –
Stop spending millions of pounds every year on inquiries where they are not necessary. If something has gone wrong, and someone has made a mistake, we dont need to dwell on it for 5 years until experts from the UK have told us what we already knew in the first place
This was create huge savings
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Realism. I would advise the States to have a look at the rudundancies and cost savings Birmingham city council have just announced to learn what measures need to be taken to balance the books and exist in the real world where money is tight.
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Item 2 MB “How much did it cost for TLS to attempt to meet Barack Obama”
I answer to your question – I believe our Chief Minister paid for the visit out of his own pocket.
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Offer to pay the Chief Execs of each department a bonus of 10% of what they can save during the next year and watch the savings come flooding in.
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Just bl**dy do it then!!!
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Ben knows how money and management work……Mr Moles comments are typical of what has gone on here the army of civil servants bleeding the coffers…are we to believe that the last Airport director was 20 understaffed…no it’s empire building and we all know it.who will have the cajones to cut the head off the snake….? then pare it back to reality…or will we all sleepwalk into bankruptcy……the astute know of course that that is part of the common purpose agenda…go see eutruth.org.uk/cp.pdf
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james
Now that is a great idea, please email states members and let them know as it is probably beyond their grasp of thinking. Although I am not sure what incentive they will have next year except to raise spending and request the same the year after!!!
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8 Disgruntled
Unless you are TLS himself how could you possibly know that for certain?
Personally I feel that if the public votes in these people on the back of the promises they make that once they fail to meet said promises (without good reason) then they should be immediately sacked for breach of (verbal) contract.
I for one would vote any candidate who would start by getting rid of the old boys culture in the states and rid us of all the dead wood too……and promise to listen to the public!
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Jersey has had one of the strongest economies in the world since the last war, without having natural resources, oil, diamonds minds etc.
The obvious benefit is schools, harbour, hospitals and airport major capital investment are all paid for. It has also lead to an overpopulated expensive public sector.
Senator Shenton is correct, hard times , need s a strong Government not afraid to wield the knife.
Suggestions that will not hurt services and will save a huge amount of money. Scrap WEB, scrap the TA, scrap the environmental part of planning after the incinerator site disaster. Stop States department invoicing other States departments for work at artificially ridiculously high prices.
AS an example the proposed Ann Street car park permission was invoiced by planning ( for permission to build ) at £600,000. Stop all consultants unless two separate departments agree they are needed. There is a lot more, of course. The public know what is going on, we have been paying ever since they brought in user pays and then GST on top of income tax.
Davey.
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Stop wasting money on “independent” reports which tell us what the chief execs want to hear…!
Don’t forget that redundancies in the ground level public sector work force = less tax revenue and more income support payments. Also probably an increase in demand for social housing which also increases the burden on tax revenue.
Town parks and artwork are also not essential in terms of public spending and those with the purse strings need to be reminded of that. Would rather people keep their jobs than see money wasted on frivolous projects that can wait until the economy swings back into a boom period.
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3.Mogit – ‘held to account the same as private sector bosses’??? Was it really only 2009 when a certain ‘private sector’ boss (Royal Bank of Scotland) called Goodwin got his organisation into such a state that they had to be baled out by the UK taxpayer. And they held him to account by giving him an obscene pension pay off. Sorry mate, the public sector is far from perfect but don’t always hold up the private sector as a model of good practice.
Regarding the article though, it is hard to argue with Ben Shenton. There is an unpleasant reality to grasp and it needs to be done so very quickly. Time will tell but if/when the States close the gap….there can be no complaints about essential services being closed.
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I haven’t been a fan of Shenton, and I’m yet to see him actually doing anything but at least he’s making he right sounds.
Come on now Ben, suggestions please, and not just popular ones. Remember, you may anger a handful of states employees by suggesting specific cuts but you’ll be guaranteed a long career in the states by a grateful public.
As James said above, look at what Birmingham has done. Do not bow to pressure from unions. If they threaten to strike, let them strike. Life will go on. Employees looking for pay-rises at the moment have no sense on reality whatsoever.
It is not simply the cuts that are needed, though they are important in the short term. Long term though we need an entire culture shift from a lack of consideration of whose money is being spent. Those holding the purse strings need to be made fully accountable for their budgets. All contracts should be put out to open tender on an annual basis to ensure best value to the public. If that means engaging outside firms, the Accounts Committee or similar should be engaged to weigh up the benefits (low cost) versus the potential loss of income locally and make an informed decision.
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who cares..dont give a damn what they do anymore such a vile place to live….and yes i,m LOCAL!!!!!!!!!!
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I was very sceptical about Ben Shenton when he was elected – a chip off the old ineffectual wind-bag block I thought. But no, every time the Senator opens his mouth, the more I approve. A breath of fresh air with brains!
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mr mole (4)
why the need for a baggage consultant?
bags are checked in,flight details attached to bags, down the shute, on to a flat bed , driven to the plane , load into the plane , plane takes off, the procedure has been the same , be it a plane , boat or train, or long distance coach. same action since travel began.
it is this kind of squander that needs to be stopped.
we could go the same way as greece.
what a shocker , as the story unfolded on the radio , about birminghams council cut backs, the gravy train is going to be de railed
in birmingham.
as ben said do they care?
many would say i doubt it.
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Why was such a huge amount of cash spent on a new incinerator which was not agreed by the residents of Havre-des-Pas.
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truthseeker(11)
do you think the 20 extra , at the airport, all work for a common purpose.
i followed a link on here about common purpose, good reading.
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The states waste money and us Islanders have to suffer their error….ie increase GST after all that will cover up the mistakes made by the States….dig up the roads to keep the people in jobs blah blah blah….get a grip get it right stop ripping the Islanders off and own up to the fact that the current gov is unable to manage the Islands funds in a professional manner…I am unemployed for the last 6 weeks and can’t get a penny from the states to help me through but the states can take from me and others by increasing GST and before we know it there will be tax increase…..so unfair
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Hang on is it not Shenton and all the other politicians that approve the States budgets year on year. If he’s looking for blame he can start with himself and he’s fellow politicians for allowing to much money to be made available for Chief officers to spend in the first place.
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Shenton’s having a laugh isn’t he? He needs to sort his own spending decisions out first before criticising others and threatening livelihoods. He’s one of the fools who contributed to the 40% increase by voting to spend £10 million on the Town Park when we could have had it at no cost to the taxpayer.
He should put his money where is mouth is and bring a proposition to amend that decision in favour of the ‘free’ option
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Davey West (#14) has told us that:
“Jersey has had one of the strongest economies in the world since the last war, without having natural resources, oil, diamonds minds etc”.
That may well be the case, Mr West. But have you never heard the age-old proverb: “Never put all your eggs in one basket”?
Agricultural exports (apart from potatoes, of course) are all but dead.
We have killed off the tourist trade.
Textiles was dead and buried before most of us were born.
So, all that the Bailiwick of Jersey is left with in terms of elemental economy is the finance business.
Am I the only one to think that – with one tap on a computer keyboard – the banks could move out of St Helier, just as quickly as they moved in.
I will say it again: Jersey must “not put all its eggs in one basket”.
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magnolia man talks of not putting our eggs in one basket. Others talk of finance being the goose that lays our golden eggs.
So I ask, what came first, the egg or the basket? And surely if we only have one egg we can only put it in one basket. There is no point having more baskets than eggs.
So what we need is clearly more eggs and more baskets. But as Magnolia Man says, we have no textile industry. We cannot make our own baskets! So we will have to import baskets. They will have 17% “frieght charge” added to the price plus GST at 3%, but we know that will be 12% before long.
So we could spend all our money on baskets before we even have any eggs. And how is that going to reduce public spendng?
Rather that putting all our eggs into one basket I think we need to put the cart before the horse, making sure first that the horse we plan to flog is not dead and that the egg is well out of the way first, whether basketed or not.
Agreed?
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Bums on seats is an old phrase but is always valid,we have the likes of Hamptonne,Maritime museum etc all struggling and which cannot continue to be subsidized,shops cafes ..all trades except finance suffering,all hail the God Finance, which to be fair has made as many demands as it has provided benefits,and has been encouraged to the detriment of Tourism,which many here made their living from.it would take determined political will.to arrange things so we could kickstart it by ensuring that people could get in and out of the island for say, 50 quid. scrap landing charges and any other charges so we just get ‘em in ,it’s about numbers, a couple of full page ads in the Nationals,come to Jersey only £50.it’s about what they spend when they are here, it was nothing for the jersey potteries to have 20 coaches of punters in their car park on a weekday 41 on each coach ..do the math.if only half have a cup of tea and a bun, and only 10% buy a pot..x 7 days a week..in fact in those days they only needed to open weekdays, ask anyone who actually worked in tourism how it works,not rocket science..make it value and they will come,hold onto grandiosity and watch everyone go bust….hello is anyone there..?
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myself and the wife went to corfu a few years ago as we discovered , that we had spare cash.
( those days are fading fast)
stayed in a very basic hotel / guest hose , it had a sun trap pool, breakfast was a running buffet, food was available in the evening , but most went around the town , to little resurants.
hired a motor bike for our own sight seeing , and had a very nice week.
the point is if we had had a week off at home and put in a night in france it would of being more expensive .
most folk want a comfy bed, a clean room with bath/shower , good food and drink and friendly locals and not be ripped off.
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deputy dog
if you think jersey is such a vile place to live then move, simple as that!!! then come back when you realise it aint that bad at all!!!!!!!!!
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If they reduced the speed limit to 20mph Island-wide, they would probably make 50M a year in speeding fines!
On a serious note Shenton is covering his own back here, surely he has the power to do something about this rather then just saying it and scaring everyone?
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