Future savings from high salary States 'chief information officer' are unknown
POLICY Council was given no indication of the exact 'long-term' savings likely to be achieved before it approved the creation of a new high-salary post, chief minister Jonathan Le Tocq has confirmed.
The chief minister, pictured, said that the Policy Council gave its approval to the new position of chief information officer after considering a report from chief executive Paul Whitfield.
Deputy Le Tocq confirmed that a detailed business case was not presented to the Policy Council and said that it was not possible to quantify the exact savings that will be made, as a result of the new post, at this juncture.
He was responding to a series of official questions from Deputy Laurie Queripel over the decision to introduce the new position within the senior management team – with a salary potential rising to £122,000 a year.
'In supporting this initiative the Policy Council recognised that the CEO (Mr Whitfield) required specific support, skills and expertise to enable him to develop and implement much-needed public service transformation, a task that he was clearly set when appointed,' said Deputy Le Tocq.
'The submission to Policy Council did not indicate what savings were likely to be achieved for the very simple reason that this post is key to developing and implementing the opportunities and architecture that technology can provide towards future effective and efficient delivery of services to the people of Guernsey.
'This will lead to significant savings long-term.
'It is not possible to quantify what those savings will be at this juncture.'
