The Rt Hon Peter Robinson MP, MLA told members of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy at their annual conference in Newcastle, that government should be prepared to do more to produce tangible dividends. This should include establishing an all-powerful scrutiny body to seek out efficiency savings and ensure delivery throughout the public sector.
The theme of the conference was, appropriately, ‘Surviving the Big Squeeze’ and the Minister began by setting out the resource constraints facing the Executive:
“Treasury plans assume current spending to grow by just under 2%, in real terms, per year. At this stage and alongside colleagues in Scotland and Wales, we do not know the exact outcome for the Devolved Administrations. However, our expectation is in the region of real growth of around 1% per annum.
“To put this into context, growth in public spending here since the start of the decade has been around 4% a year. However, this figure will be supplemented by cash-releasing efficiency savings of 3% per year across central government. In terms of Departmental aspirations for the Budget process there is a significant mismatch between the level of resources likely to be available and indicative bids.
“Delivery of the required level of efficiency savings will be critical in delivering the Executive’s priorities. Delivery of 3% annual cash-releasing efficiencies will produce more than £700m by 2010-2011 for reinvestment in the Executive’s public expenditure priorities. Hence, delivery of this efficiency programme, and indeed, identifying additional efficiencies, is critical.
“I believe we need to become more radical in our approach to identifying ways of improving the efficiency, performance and delivery of the public sector in Northern Ireland.
“For that reason I want to suggest today the creation of a new high level efficiency taskforce – the Performance & Efficiency Delivery Unit (PEDU) – supported by a small number of staff, to re-examine the scope for generating cash-releasing efficiencies and improving delivery and performance within Departments and across the wider public sector.”
Mr Robinson said that while its composition would have to be finalised, it must have clear objectives:
“The PEDU will have authority to scrutinise and review, critically, the nature of spending in all areas. It will be asked to identify radical options to produce deliverable efficiency savings over and above the 3% level already set by direct rule Ministers. It may be that differential savings levels across the public sector will result from this.
“Membership will be limited to a few respected individuals with a strong track record in overseeing successful organisational change involving the delivery of greater efficiency and better quality services. The unit should include individuals from outside the public sector.
“I am particularly keen that the PEDU will look at how we spend our money at present and what we achieve in terms of quality public services. It should be prepared to challenge even the most widely accepted assumptions about how we are organised and how we go about the business of delivering services.
“What I want from the process is challenging recommendations as to what we should and should not be doing within the public sector, as well as plans to ensure that those services we must deliver are provided cost-efficiently.
“The Unit will also need to consider how our public spending programmes impact on securing growth in our wider economy, including the gap in productivity levels, in both the public and private sectors here, compared to the rest of the UK. This may involve scaling back programmes where the original policy objective has changed, or where there has been a failure to deliver those objectives.”
Mr Robinson said that Civil Service reform is a top priority for government, including the reduction of administrative costs and absenteeism. He said that there is already a programme of work well underway to focus energy and resources on frontline priorities through improving efficiency, rationalising support services and harnessing technology:
“We are reducing the costs of corporate services by sharing services across Civil Service Departments such as human resources, finance and accounts, records management, staff training and ICT. The Workplace 2010 programme will also enable us to be much more efficient about how we manage the government estate.
“People in Northern Ireland are quite rightly demanding better quality services and more flexibility and choice in how they interact with government. I have visited New York and have seen for myself the way in which the ‘3-1-1’ initiative has transformed how people talk to government and get things done.
“What this means is that any member of the public who wants to contact a public service within central government can do so by dialling just one telephone number. I expect to see this delivered during the early part of the Comprehensive Review period and then extended to all parts of the public sector.”
The Minister stressed that the upcoming budget would involve difficult choices as available resources would not allow all potential bids to be met. He explained that the Executive had already begun the process of producing priorities for the next few years and the budget would reflect this. It would also look at practical ways of raising additional cash for public services:
“The Budget context emphasises that all parts of the public sector need to look carefully at the disposal of surplus assets. If there are assets that are not required to deliver services, why not sell them and put the money to better use on behalf of everyone in Northern Ireland,” he proposed.
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