Better Public Services and Lower Tax? (UK taxation)

Member Name: grumbleweed

Product:	UK taxation
Date:	25/05/01 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Better services

Disadvantages: Not applicable

These two objectives are not necessarily inconsistent, given a bit of common sense and good housekeeping. Everyone says Gordon is canny with his wallet, but not a match for the thrifty Janet of Tannochbrae. She knew how to make a joint last a week and didn't stand any nonsense from those doctors. So here, just for starters and patently in no particular order of priority, are ten ways of running public services more effectively and lowering taxes.

1. Ban Government departments from spending more than a minimal amount on establishing and changing their corporate identities and logos. Can anyone tell me what the DCMS designer logo is supposed to represent? Does anyone know what DCMS stands for? What did it cost the post office to rebrand itself Consignia? How much collectively has been spent on these corporate frivolities – enough to build quite a few hospitals I suspect.

2. End the devolution of responsibility for pay settlements and return to centrally agreed wage scales for public sector employees. Tell us what has been spent collectively on each organisation endlessly reviewing and changing its pay structures. This has led to a plethora of increasingly divergent and confusing systems. The Government introduced it to break the collective bargaining power of the public sector unions. But the cost involved in each organisation having to set and negotiate its own pay scales is huge – it would pay for quite a few hip replacement operations.

3. End the growing downward devolution of public sector personnel codes and practices, including recruitment and promotion systems, to general administrators with no training in human resources. The result? Much expensive reinvention of the wheel. Divergent, confusing and ineffective systems. Anyone know what fluid grading is? No nothing to do with the alcoholic content of beer. It means that if your in the right place at the right time and the boss likes
you, then you can go up a few grades without interview and regardless of your ability. Its called promoting people beyond the level of their incompetence.

4. Opportunities for a bit of job skipping are especially good following a period of voluntary early retirements. What happens is generally this. The organisations pay out a big tranche of money getting hundreds of people off their payroll on enhanced retirement terms and three months later, guess what? They’re short of staff. Better have some promotions and get some agency staff to fill the gaps that the promotees leave. And until we can sort this mess out, lets get some of those retired people back for a bit of temporary consultancy at £££ per day! Ouch that’s blown a big hole in the pay budget. Need some more tax revenue, Gordon.

5. Further on the subject of HR (sorry it’s a rich seam) get some experts to set up central, universal and flexible staff reporting and performance pay systems. What is the cost of each organisation devising unique upwards, downwards and sideways reporting systems, establishing job competence grids, playing buzz word bingo, setting up quality circles, communications teams, t-groups (or is it tea groups?) One department has had four major reviews of reporting & performance pay systems in the last 10 years, each involving expensive consultancy, fancy new forms, extended union negotiations and expensive training for all staff in the new systems.

6. No more Investors in People. How much is being spent to get that logo on the letterhead? What about the opportunity cost of all those IIP meetings and preparing for assessment day when one could be doing some real work. Did your life improve when the plaque finally went up on the wall. Who really needs IIP, charter marks, plain English awards and so on? Spend the money on services instead.

7. What is the cost of "special bonus
es" awarded by public servants to one another on the nod in recognition of especially effective service or sucking up to ones boss. It might surprise you. Scrap these bonuses. They are divisive not motivating, and lack transparency and accountability.

8. We all know the public sector is littered with failed computer and construction projects. What is the collective cost of failed projects (not just in payments to SEMA and Everything Done Slowly but in terms of non-productive staff cost). What is the so called Office of Government Commerce doing about it. Check out their exciting website. Does it fill you with confidence that public contracts are in safe hands. A smarter performance in this area could save billions.

9. Diversity training/awaydays/bonding sessions/conferences/any excuse for a few days in a country hotel - if people have not developed the personality to treat their work colleagues decently, then what good is a few days training course going to do? Lets have some transparency/visibility about the costs of political correctness training. Why not spend the time on learning/refreshing the skills that are actually needed for the work.

10. Insist on open plan in public sector offices, & hot desking if appropriate, saving on accommodation space and increasing productivity. The presence of workmates and the boss in the immediate vicinity tends to have a remedial effect on poor timekeeping, long personal calls, frequent coffee breaks, afternoon naps, reading Private Eye and all the other things one can do in the seclusion of ones own office. This will save a lot of tax revenue - perhaps it could be spent on new hospital facilities so that NHS patients don't have to hot-bed.

Ideas for 11-20 anyone?

PS Sorry if you are a public sector employee but you chose it, and you do get an index linked final salary pension scheme. I'm not suggesting there isn't waste in the p
rivate sector too, but at least we're not financed by public money. Customers can choose if they want to pay us money for services and our jobs are on the line if they don't. But wait, hang on, I've forgotten something. Didn't my company acquire a vast assortment of public sector property about the size of South East England at ridiculous knock down prices and then sell half of it off to developers at a huge profit.

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