'Little evidence' £1M consultants saved Jersey government money

There is "little evidence" a programme costing £1 million in consultant fees to help Jersey's government become more economical made any difference, according to a review by the Auditor and Comptroller General (C&AG), Lynn Pamment.

The Efficiencies Programme ran from 2019 until April 2020 with the aim of working out ways long-term savings could be made on the island.

However, the report found there had been no "cultural shift in identifying and delivering efficiencies."

It says the whole process "lacked both granularity and data integrity," with there being a "general expectation that there should be no service degradation as a consequence of making efficiencies."

It did also concede that the pandemic "severely interrupted" the government's ability to properly implement the programme, leading to its closure in April 2020.

The Efficiencies Programme was replaced by the Rebalancing Programme from April 2020 until May 2022.

Its purpose was also to find savings within the government, as well as deal with the impact of the pandemic.

However, the C&AG review says the new plan did not deliver either.

Nonetheless, departmental budgets were reduced in 2021 and 2022 - this led to additional savings of £76.8 million.

However, this was short of the target savings for this period (£86.1 million).

The present government is currently preparing its own plan - the Value for Money Programme - which will create new savings targets within each department.

It says it will consider the recommendations found in the C&AG review, acknowledging that "there is still work to be done" and there is a need to create a "culture of value for money."

It also agreed with the report's findings on the pandemic, saying the previous government had a "short-term need to prioritise responding to the pandemic over efficiencies."

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