Where is the sense of direction?
ON SATURDAY Opinion suggested that islanders ought to question the value they were getting from their politicians given the paralysis that appears to exist when it comes to introducing meaningful reforms to States spending, or even given the devastating WAO report on governance, the way it conducts itself.
ON SATURDAY Opinion suggested that islanders ought to question the value they were getting from their politicians given the paralysis that appears to exist when it comes to introducing meaningful reforms to States spending, or even given the devastating WAO report on governance, the way it conducts itself.
What is self-evident is the lack of direction or leadership that exists within government. There may be pockets of determination, including Treasury's attempts at encouraging restraint and the chief minister's off-island initiatives, but there is no sense of any concerted action.
That is why the 2009 accounts showed an unsustainable net increase in department and committee expenditure of almost 10% at a time when deputies claim they are exercising restraint.
That rise did not happen by accident. Such recklessly extravagant expenditure – to use the words first coined by Tribal Consulting – was allowed by ministers either individually as heads of department or collectively as part of the Policy Council.
So those who were nominally paying lip-service to conserving taxpayers' money were actually splurging it behind the backs of islanders.
In turn, that begs the question: who is driving domestic policy?
The island's foreign affairs appear to be well catered for, but who is actually minding the shop?
No individual minister is driving long overdue reform of the civil service and allied groups and the feeble response from the Policy Council over the Wales Audit Office criticisms showed equally clearly that there is no backbone in that group for making things better or demonstrating value for money.
Seen in that light, membership of the council might provide access to a top level talking shop but what benefit or direction is it providing at a time when government hasn't a grip its finances or, as things stand, even its taxation policy?
The answer is plain and an illustration of that is in the way the so-called financial transformation programme is being conducted – as something remote from government and the responsibility of anyone other than ministers.
And by shirking their responsibilities in this way, ministers are cynically seeking to avoid blame for a frankly shabby performance.
