You can’t make this stuff up:
NATHAN REES will announce the most comprehensive overhaul of the public service in decades by merging 160 government agencies into 13 super-departments – but no one will lose their job and he is not planning to axe any of the agencies.
Mr Rees will face accusations he squibbed major reform and is hostage to the unions, who helped get him the job. The Public Service Association was told of the the plan yesterday.
And savings?
Mr Rees said there would be savings, but primarily in the areas of IT, procurement and purchasing goods and services for agencies. The real benefit of the change would be better co-ordinated planning of government policies led by a director-general of each super-department. He will not cut back his cabinet in the wake of the changes.
Don’t you believe it. These savings will be swamped by the costs of co-ordination (more meetings, slower approval processes etc). The idea of economies of scale is largely a myth and the planning problem is largely a political problem i.e. stupid politicians,
