Consultants: TTS defend £1.2m cost
Tuesday 21st June 2011, 2:57PM BST.
Transport Minister Mike Jackson
TRANSPORT Minister Mike Jackson has defended his department’s high spending on consultants, saying it would cost much more to permanently employ a set of engineering experts.
Figures released by the Treasury department show that TTS spent £1.32 million on 82 consultants’ reports in the last five years – making them the second highest-spending department, narrowly behind Health.
But the figure is a much higher proportion of their total spending as they have an annual budget of only £28m, the fourth-lowest of the ten States departments.
• Full report in Tuesday’s JEP
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They can’t afford to repair the roads and they are paying consultants to tell them that they need fixing.
Can’t they stick to their budget, take some maths lessons and get on with their work.
What s wrong with people???
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are those , at the top of the tree , not experts ?
only the poor old tax payer again, ho hum.
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We might not like spending on consultants, and I’m sure there is lots of waste in there, but the obsession people have with how much is spent on them by the States is rediculous.
Blatantly when you want to do anything involving engineering (and that is a fair chunk of what TTS do) you have to get an engineer to report. The same applies when you make changes of any kind in management – someone has to do the analysis and frequently it is quicker, cheaper (and more reliable) to hire specialists to do so.
Hospitals are another case in hand – Jersey has a single medium size hospital. In implementing changes surely it makes sense to use specialist consultants who advise the vastly bigger NHS to ensure the analysis and outcome are fit for purpose. Its not a perfect system – but management should be busy managing and frankly shouldn’t (and don’t have the time or necessarily the skillset) to research all aspects of an issue or the best solution. They are there to use the consultants outpet to make decisions.
This is a complete non-story.
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Here you are Mike. Some of my personal consultation reports for you.
I wont even charge you – just file them and refer to them in your next meeting.
Are the roads in bad condition.
- Yes. Spend some of the fuel tax money on fixing them.
Are there too many cars on the road.
- Yes. Spend some of the fuel tax money on a subsidised transport hub
Why don’t people use the bus.
- Because they smell funny and are always full. Spend some of the fuel tax money on a subsidised transport hub.
Are TTS overpaid and overstaffed.
- No, but they lack the ability to think for themselves. Save some of our tax payers money and do what you are paid to do, not take the advice of others.
Is the avenue too bendy.
- Yes, but hey, it’s only tax payers money and there’s plenty of it so lets add a few kinks to keep the drivers on their toes.
Why does traffic move so slowly.
- See answer number two and also try making traffic lights go RED AMBER GREEN. This will help.
Why are there so many un roadworthy cars about.
- Not enough TTS spot checks. Try introducing a MOT style test when the car reaches five years old. This will probably take a few thousand crap heaps off the road.
There, saved you the best part of half million there Mike!
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£1.32m in 5 years on 82 reports.
£1.32m / 82 reports = £16100 per one report every 3 weeks on average.
So Mr Jackson you are saying that this is good deal and cheap price.. Good for who ?
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Well he would say that wouldn’t he as Christine Keeler has been oft quoted…this from the man that neutered what little of our seaside atmosphere was left by putting sterile white lights along the Prom.wher the jolly coloured ones were doing their seaside bit…he forgets some of us have been around a long time and remember that the coloured orbs were in fact gas filled long life ones as was reported in the J.E.P when they were installed his excuse for their removal was like all the other waffly excuses trotted out when a b*l*8ck has been dropped.
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It’s about time Mike Jackson stopped twiddling his thumbs.
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“Here you are Mike. Some of my personal consultation reports for you.
I wont even charge you – just file them and refer to them in your next meeting.”
Nice offer but they already have filing cabinets filled with reports of that nature so could not fit any more.
The CoM and the States know what the problems are, it is finding politically workable solutions to solve them that is the problem.
For instance, how do you get a wealthy population of car addicts to use their cars less without politically unacceptable punitive taxation?
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Before I left jersey (and yes I was born and educated in jersey and then returned to work as a Engineer in the island) and I was one of those consultants that were hired in for my specialist engineering advice.
I am proud of the contribution I made to the island, it’s just a shame some people can’t ever see the good side of the work that people like myself did for the island. One of the projects I worked on (and not the roads) gave the island massive savings in terms of captial spending that was being spent by the States every year.
Prehaps people should look at those savings made and the whole picture???
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Jackson and his gang of highway robbers (the COM) are robbing us blind and taxing us more to pay for more reports and more senior civil servant payouts!
We want new flat tarmac on our roads not reports about them!
Jackson is a complete waste of space…
(Engineer) another one of the time waster’s that’s come to Jersey filled their pockets with our cash and legged it back from where they came. Nice job if you can get it.
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How do we get rid of these numpties ?
Lets start our own ‘The CommonSense Party’ we’d win hands down !
They need to start not just listening but perhaps adopt some of the ‘Joe Publics’ ideas !
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do us all a favour jacko go back to the boat yard and do what you do best
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Blade
Actually other way around; I AM from jersey, it’s only after i worked in jersey that i feel so let down by states and their lack of support to the engineering community, so i have moved away to give me family job security.
maybe the actual problem is people not taking the time to understand the whole story…
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@9
Mr Engineer, it is nothing personal but your case is a model example of wasting taxpayer’s money.
Don’t you think that you, as an engineer, should be hired to solve technical, not financial problems ?
While you are so proud to contribute (in exchange for good money I suppose) to the island and making huge savings by giving your “specialist engineering advice” in non engineering but financial project (after all not exactly area of your expertise right ?) perhaps someone with strong financial background and expertise could produce even more savings in this project?
Perhaps you did what you were asked to do very well, perhaps you take the challenge in good intention, yet apparently you’ve done something what should be given to an expert in the right (financial) area. As such someone hiring you took unnecessary risk and hired wrong person to do the job, which is wasting taxpayer’s money.
More general comment is – TTS apparently cannot operate without external consultants, which leads me to simple conclusion that most of their staff are incompetent and should be made redundant, and their jobs should be taken by specialists, perhaps one like Mr Engineer.
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Talking of incompetent, has anyone seen the complete mess that they are now making of the avenue!
Jackson should be fired with immediate effect.
What a complete waste of taxpayer’s money adding antiskid at the traffic lights at first tower. They have made a complete cock up of the whole avenue, after spending millions on resurfacing it they have now put new tarmac along the pave at first tower and have dug up half the lay-bys along west park after they had just dug them up!!!!
So much for forward thinking and planning.
It makes my blood boil…. They are all useless
Why are non of our states members calling a vote of no confidence in this idiot of a transport minister? He is worst than Guy de Faye and that’s saying something!
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