Vote should reflect HSSD track record
BY THE end of the week, Health and Social Services minister Hunter Adam and his political colleagues will know whether they have a chance of surviving a vote of no confidence in their mishandling of the department's finances.
BY THE end of the week, Health and Social Services minister Hunter Adam and his political colleagues will know whether they have a chance of surviving a vote of no confidence in their mishandling of the department's finances.
As of late yesterday, it didn't look good.
Put another way, why would the Assembly want to keep a minister who has demonstrated on multiple occasions that he is unable to keep within budget?
In many respects, this is becoming a re-run of the Education debacle but with the focus on the political rather than the civil service leadership.
Having flagged a potential £1.5m. overspend in May, to have to be told by Treasury and Resources this late in the year that it must keep within the current £2.5m. is not just incompetence, it's a failure to fulfil obligations.
As the hours tick by, HSSD will learn whether the tide is turning against them and it was notable yesterday that the chief minister offered no words of comfort or support while the Treasury minister is parachuting in his own money men to staunch the haemorrhage of taxpayer funds.
In his hand-wringing moments, the Health minister has been telling colleagues that he has only five accountants so it's hardly surprising he has not got control of his £107m. Budget.
What he hasn't done is to take an axe to the multiple management tiers in social services or the Health Promotion Unit, which duplicates work done elsewhere, to pay for the financial control that he clearly needs.
He hasn't published the critical report into the operation of A&E and he hasn't addressed the imbalance in healthcare funding between GPs and specialists.
Or merged the medical officer of health function with that of Jersey and outsourced maintenance and other blue-collar jobs to the private sector.
He and his colleagues are aware of many other opportunities for staying within budget but instead allowed things to run away until checked by T&R.
It is not a track record to inspire confidence – or to justify surviving a vote of no confidence.
