Letter to the Editor: Is the work that these civil servants are doing really necessary?
I was moved to write by the headline of 8 March: 400 Health jobs ‘in cash crisis threat’. I had hoped that Senator Ozouf was going to make genuine cuts in public expenditure in response to the ongoing financial crisis, which in truth is caused more by planned increases in government expenditure than anything else. The figure of £600 million planned spending in 2010 consists of £540 million spent in 2009 and £60 million increase in expenditure. The plan to return to £540 million pounds expenditure is therefore not a cut, but merely a continuance of existing spending. It is a start, but Jersey spends beyond its means or indeed needs. The burden must fall on the States Assembly to start looking at which legislation is surplus to requirements and begin to repeal laws. This may lead to a loss of employment, but the government should be looking at whether the work that many civil servants do is necessary. It is clear that many civil service posts exist simply to keep someone off benefits and...