Chief Operating Officer-Does anybody understand this stuff?

[2112]

On 8/31/2023 at 7:22 AM, asitis said:

Jesus Christ, more CS bullshit merchants, HR recruitment love them ! Many of our appointments to leading posts have been pitiful, who in gods name interviews these people, who asks them what they have achieved, what they have enriched by their presence ?

Still I guess in meetings the underlings who might know something about the job but don't fit the profile can play bullshit bingo !

Cynical MOI ?

No you’re not cynical, I’m sure that a fair percentage of islanders would be thinking the same. 

[code99]

What ordinary residents care about is the scarcity of frontline health and social care and education workers, vast overspending on vanity capital projects, things like the difficulty of getting on and off the Island via the Airport (which has been put ‘on notice’ by the relevant Authorities), young families being priced out of the housing market, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and also the cost-of-doing-business crisis, etc, etc.

IMHO, just because things are not directly impacting the public, that does not mean that they do not matter e.g., who cares if someone was appointed as another COO in an obscure Government Department...but the absurd situation where each Government Department is a separate Legal Entity has resulted in massive duplication of duties/ functions/ systems and CS staff. These separate CS empires are directly and indirectly costing the Island an unnecessary fortune i.e., there are additional costs of running and limited cooperation between Government Departments. I cannot see how this duplicate Legal Entity structure helps to make residents' lives any better or gives Government ‘value for money’. On the contrary, over the past decade both quality and quantity of public services on the Island have gotten considerably worse.

Back in 2019 the Public Sector Pensions Authority had 11,362 active members (aka public sector employees) – circa 20% of the Island’s working age population, with CS numbers rising by an average of 250 people each year. This (largely invisible) CS expansion has been caused by successive unaccountable IOM Governments failing to get a grip on what are the right priorities. They have spent taxpayers’ moolah and are running down the Reserves, all of that with apparent impunity. IMHO, consolidating Government Departments under a single Legal Entity should have been done eons ago, but now this Humpty Dumpty system has been around for so long, it is probably too expensive to put Humpty back together again. Having said that, before the Government come around asking residents to pay more taxes, I believe they must demonstrate that the Government can live within their means without compromising frontline services. A reduction in CS numbers who are not involved in provisioning of frontline services is long overdue and this action should not be swept under the carpet any longer.

[Non-Believer]

14 hours ago, code99 said:

What ordinary residents care about is the scarcity of frontline health and social care and education workers, vast overspending on vanity capital projects, things like the difficulty of getting on and off the Island via the Airport (which has been put ‘on notice’ by the relevant Authorities), young families being priced out of the housing market, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and also the cost-of-doing-business crisis, etc, etc.

IMHO, just because things are not directly impacting the public, that does not mean that they do not matter e.g., who cares if someone was appointed as another COO in an obscure Government Department...but the absurd situation where each Government Department is a separate Legal Entity has resulted in massive duplication of duties/ functions/ systems and CS staff. These separate CS empires are directly and indirectly costing the Island an unnecessary fortune i.e., there are additional costs of running and limited cooperation between Government Departments. I cannot see how this duplicate Legal Entity structure helps to make residents' lives any better or gives Government ‘value for money’. On the contrary, over the past decade both quality and quantity of public services on the Island have gotten considerably worse.

Back in 2019 the Public Sector Pensions Authority had 11,362 active members (aka public sector employees) – circa 20% of the Island’s working age population, with CS numbers rising by an average of 250 people each year. This (largely invisible) CS expansion has been caused by successive unaccountable IOM Governments failing to get a grip on what are the right priorities. They have spent taxpayers’ moolah and are running down the Reserves, all of that with apparent impunity. IMHO, consolidating Government Departments under a single Legal Entity should have been done eons ago, but now this Humpty Dumpty system has been around for so long, it is probably too expensive to put Humpty back together again. Having said that, before the Government come around asking residents to pay more taxes, I believe they must demonstrate that the Government can live within their means without compromising frontline services. A reduction in CS numbers who are not involved in provisioning of frontline services is long overdue and this action should not be swept under the carpet any longer.

Wait until you sit down and calculate, even roughly, what the £40M pa PS pension gap is costing every man and woman of working/taxpaying age on this Island, I did with a mate this afternoon (on a fag packet, admittedly) and even erring on the generous side to the taxpayers, it's horrifying. In particular, given that this is an annual shortfall for the foreseeable future and not just a one-off.

The Manx taxpayers must be due some sort of decoration for bearing the costs of this, the MUA fuck-up and everything else attributable to weak and incompetent Government in addition to more regular taxation.

From the first warnings in 2006, three successive administrations of overpaid, idle politicians kicked this can down the road for fear of upsetting their CS masters. And before any of them mention the costs of the legal challenges, there was no problem in funding challenges to the Ranson business, was there? Strange that.

It simply boils down to the fact that the CS/PS do not give a monkeys about where the money comes from or what pain is inflicted on the general public as long as they get their "entitlement". And politicians haven't had the balls to challenge any of it.

The best news is that we have at least a decade and a half of this to come yet.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Non-Believer
Typo

[Moghrey Mie]

3 hours ago, code99 said:

What ordinary residents care about is the scarcity of frontline health and social care and education workers, vast overspending on vanity capital projects, things like the difficulty of getting on and off the Island via the Airport (which has been put ‘on notice’ by the relevant Authorities), young families being priced out of the housing market, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and also the cost-of-doing-business crisis, etc, etc.

IMHO, just because things are not directly impacting the public, that does not mean that they do not matter e.g., who cares if someone was appointed as another COO in an obscure Government Department...but the absurd situation where each Government Department is a separate Legal Entity has resulted in massive duplication of duties/ functions/ systems and CS staff. These separate CS empires are directly and indirectly costing the Island an unnecessary fortune i.e., there are additional costs of running and limited cooperation between Government Departments. I cannot see how this duplicate Legal Entity structure helps to make residents' lives any better or gives Government ‘value for money’. On the contrary, over the past decade both quality and quantity of public services on the Island have gotten considerably worse.

Back in 2019 the Public Sector Pensions Authority had 11,362 active members (aka public sector employees) – circa 20% of the Island’s working age population, with CS numbers rising by an average of 250 people each year. This (largely invisible) CS expansion has been caused by successive unaccountable IOM Governments failing to get a grip on what are the right priorities. They have spent taxpayers’ moolah and are running down the Reserves, all of that with apparent impunity. IMHO, consolidating Government Departments under a single Legal Entity should have been done eons ago, but now this Humpty Dumpty system has been around for so long, it is probably too expensive to put Humpty back together again. Having said that, before the Government come around asking residents to pay more taxes, I believe they must demonstrate that the Government can live within their means without compromising frontline services. A reduction in CS numbers who are not involved in provisioning of frontline services is long overdue and this action should not be swept under the carpet any longer.

I just want to see a huge diagram with all the departments and their employees listed together with a one sentence explanation of what they do. What's the chance of doing this in the Villa Marina Gardens for the Government Conference in September?

[Andy Onchan]

7 hours ago, Moghrey Mie said:

I just want to see a huge diagram with all the departments and their employees listed together with a one sentence explanation of what they do. What's the chance of doing this in the Villa Marina Gardens for the Government Conference in September?

Nice try.

[joebean]

11 hours ago, Non-Believer said:

Wait until you sit down and calculate, even roughly, exactly what the £40M pa PS pension gap is costing every man and woman of working/taxpaying age on this Island, I did with a mate this afternoon (on a fag packet, admittedly) and even erring on the generous side to the taxpayers, it's horrifying. In particular, given that this is an annual shortfall for the foreseeable future and not just a one-off.

The Manx taxpayers must be due some sort of decoration for bearing the costs of this, the MUA fuck-up and everything else attributable to weak and incompetent Government in addition to more regular taxation.

From the first warnings in 2006, three successive administrations of overpaid, idle politicians kicked this can down the road for fear of upsetting their CS masters. And before any of them mention the costs of the legal challenges, there was no problem in funding challenges to the Ranson business, was there? Strange that.

It simply boils down to the fact that the CS/PS do not give a monkeys about where the money comes from or what pain is inflicted on the general public as long as they get their "entitlement". And politicians haven't had the balls to challenge any of it.

The best news is that we have at least a decade and a half of this to come yet.

All this boils down to our political system. Many residents stick doggedly to the belief that independent MHKs serve us well. They don’t. Many residents believe that voting for personalities over policies at election time is better. It isn’t. Many residents believe that Tynwald represents democracy. It doesn’t. Until we move away from believing that politics should be about silly issues with silly people and demand that we get real, organised and grown up about it, we will have no political control of anything. Not over the CS, not over finances and not over policy. It starts with our feeble political system and ends there.