It's official - States departments don't work well together!

Wednesday 10 August 2016

The number of States reports, political speeches, and media quotes describing the 'silo mentality' within the States of Jersey would rival the build-up of sea lettuce at St Aubin.

In recent years successive politicians have promised to make the different departments work together, in a bid to increase efficiency, and so save the taxpayer money.

But now a fresh report from the States' spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has found that so far, those efforts have all been long on rhetoric and short on actual delivery.

Published this morning, their report on States financial management concludes:

• there is too much focus on departmental responsibility at the expense of collective strategic leadership;
• all departments should commit to working together at a tactical and strategic level;
• highly qualified staff are often undertaking routine transactions at the expense of providing support to managers;
• forecasting of budgets is in terms of individual departments’ underspend or overspend rather than corporately focussed;
• suggestions for the development of a centralised focus, include the development of a Corporate Plan to inform the MTFP, and the appointment of a dedicated Deputy Treasurer.

Principally, the report describes a "cultural inertia" within the States, which manifests itself in the various departments working individually (in "silos") rather than pulling together. 

Worryingly, the report casts doubt on the key States' office strategy which would see different departments brought together in one place, so the office is cheaper to run, and people have to work together. The plan is for that to happen in a States "Whitehall" on La Motte Street.

But the PAC has concluded that not all Chief Officers are signed up to that plan, with three actually preferring to stay in their own building.

Two of the main ways the States have tried to combat that problem is through bringing common functions such as IT and HR together, but the report concludes that the various departmental Chief Officers are actually also split on how to do that.

It is also critical of the Treasury for "accepting" cuts, and not investing in staff or other resources to centrally manage the States finances. 

The Panel’s Chairman, Deputy Andrew Lewis said:

“The PAC has seen evidence of “cultural inertia” throughout many departments, which manifests in their working in ‘silos’ rather than corporately. The PAC considers that real progress is hampered by a lack of resource, a lack of a clear vision and too many highly-qualified finance staff being involved in day-to-day transactions rather than strategic corporate initiatives."