English declares war on public service 'waffle'

English declares war on public service 'waffle'

By Pattrick Smellie

Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) – Public servants who don’t like change and are “waiting for more money to drop from the sky” should consider seeking work elsewhere, while social policy agencies need to stop “waffling”, Finance Minister Bill English said today.

As well as announcing this year’s Budget will be delivered on Thursday, May 19, English told Parliament’s finance and expenditure select committee the government was looking for the same creativity among public servants as Air New Zealand showed when it cut costs 40% and delivered better service.

He also criticised policy agencies across the health, education, social welfare and justice systems for continually restating problems rather than proposing new ways of fixing them.

“Generally in social policy, we want results rather than advocacy,” said English, when questioned about the worth of agencies such as the Families Commission. “Right across the social sector there’s been too much waffle, government departments going over the problems, not being solution-focused.”

The government would release in the next month a benchmarking study that had been conducted across the public sector, which will give guidance on government agencies that perform well and where they need to lift their game.

English was briefing the committee on the Budget Policy Statement, a day after Prime Minister John Key highlighted improved value for money from the bureaucracy as a major policy focus this year.

“The financial constraint is almost universally understood,” English said. “But the more important issue is how you get some fundamental shifts in the delivery of public services such that you can supply more services for less resource.

“As departments work through their four year plans, which they’re doing now, they are realising squeezing isn’t going to be enough. The most obvious example is how Air New Zealand changed their service model, cut costs 40% and gave better service.

“For those people who have a strong belief in public service and deal with change over the next few years, it will be exciting. If they’re not interested in better service and are waiting for more money to drop out of the sky, they might be better to go somewhere else.”

English declined to speculate on which government agencies might face amalgamation, reduced budgets, or disestablishment, but pointed to the inability of the tax and social welfare departments’ computer systems to give people they served modern levels of service that are increasingly expected.

The Finance Minister also defended the partial sale of government-owned power companies, saying they too would benefit from the market disciplines that had transformed Air New Zealand in the last 10 years.

“They (electricity state-owned enterprises) have not shown the characteristics of high performing corporates,” said English. “Some are heading there now”, but they retained “fat cost structures” and had spent too many years insufficiently focused on shareholder returns.

With greater commercial discipline that would come with private investors taking a minority stake, “I expect the absolute value of those organisations to grow.”

Labour’s associate finance spokesman Trevor Mallard took the opportunity to claim this meant asset sales would lead to higher prices, to which English responded the electricity SOEs had raised power prices 72% under Labour and that such “excessive returns” would not be possible in the more competitive electricity market environment created by National’s reforms in the sector.

(BusinessDesk)

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