States savings plans are scrapped

The 10-year Public Service Reform plan was agreed in 2015, intending to transform the organisation, management and service delivery of the States workforce.

‘We are not seeing the results, the savings that were promised,’ Policy & Resources president Peter Ferbrache told the States yesterday in a surprise update statement.

Half of 200 civil service posts promised to be removed in the 2019 Budget have disappeared, but removing any more would mean cutting service delivery, Deputy Ferbrache warned.

‘The programmes of work were too complex, too ambitious, and simply not deliverable. Current expectations in terms of savings are pathetic.

‘The approach adopted, based on a “big bang” approach, was, if I’m really honest, all wrong.

‘It’s clear we cannot continue as we are.’

Deputy Ferbrache, who entered politics nearly 30 years ago, outlined a new approach to savings and working more effectively within the public sector and described it as ‘the most difficult job of any States since my political career began’.

But he said it was a ‘positive’ that P&R had recognised where things are not working, was stopping money being ‘needlessly spent on unachievable targets’, and ‘getting serious about what it will take to keep delivering the public services our community expects’.