‘Hatchet man’ needed to downsize civil service, spending- Doug Wheatley
Hatchet man, according to Wikipedia, is a person employed to carry out controversial or disagreeable tasks, such as the dismissal of a number of people from employment.
Speaking on his 3-D Show aired on ZBVI 780 AM on Friday February 17, 2017 Mr Wheatley said the budget has to be passed before April 30, 2017 and hopefully that will be done; however, one of the problems he sees is how to get the budget balanced and that increasing taxes and fees, which are already sky high, is not the way to go.
“I think the taxes and fees are already quite high…so I don’t know if that is the way to go,” he said.
Cut back on expenses
“There is another way, and that other way is cutting back on expenses but it seems that government is having a difficulty in cutting back on its expenditure although over the many, many months and years I have heard here on talk shows on various suggestions on how the expenditure could be reduced,” Mr Wheatley pointed out.
“But it seems, I don’t know, that the Government is not able to do that, but members of the public call in all the time with suggestions, maybe what we need is a hatchet man in the Government, whose job will be to maybe downsize the civil service and to get rid of superfluous expenditures, but you will need a hatchet man for that and I don’t know if the government at this point is ready to employ the services of a hatchet man.”
Insist on good governance, legislation unnecessary
Meanwhile, Mr Wheatley said among the things Governor John S. Duncan OBE expressed concern about while at a public event held at Her Majesty's Prison, last week, was the absence of a number of legislation.
Governor Duncan had said the United Kingdom would consider self-determination for the Virgin Islands; however, there several systems needed to be put in place, such as Whistle Blower Legislation, Freedom of Information Act and Human Rights Council.
However, Mr Wheatley does not see all these legislations necessary for a small territory like the Virgin Islands (UK).
“What I would say here is, yes it is good to have those things in place in various countries, you have a law, people have to abide by the law, but in the case of the BVI, I think it is a small territory and I think that if the people were to insist that their leaders do that which is right for the people and if they were sufficiently disciplined to do that, then I don’t think we would need all this additional legislation and create little empires et cetera, which is what normally happens,” Mr Wheatley remarked.
“I think what the people should do is insist on having good governance. If we have good governance, yes those other things will come in handy but we don’t need them in order to ensure we have good governance. We just need to let our elected persons know that the 35,000 of us are not satisfied with their conduct, with what they are doing and they need to pull their socks up.”
The usually outspoken host said he thinks everyone knows that the Government’s job is to serve the people of the islands to the best of its ability and, “if that is your emphasis and your objective, then that is what you will do whether you have whistleblowing legislation or not. You will do what is right because that is the undertaking that you have given to the people when they elected you.”
.png)
Follow Us On
17 Responses to “‘Hatchet man’ needed to downsize civil service, spending- Doug Wheatley”
I would hope you aren't a local but most likely you are. I hope @hot air pays attention because "huh" comments are exactly why we can't freeze new work permits. "huh" represents a large majority of locals. Locals who can't spell or write properly and think they come on a job to do as they please. No Thank You. I'll put in a work permit quickly for someone who wants to work and not waste time. THANK YOU!
His 3D show is unlisternable . been old do stress out many , because they're brain or turning back to thinking childish.
Listen at your age sir I really truly think you should repent and ask God forgiveness as well as others and baptize in Jesus name an enter Jesus government ,
First, government needs to commission an efficiency/benchmarking study. Findings and recommendations from study can be used to 1) eradicate inefficiencies and duplications, 2) enhance productivity, 3) resource level personnel asset, 4)incentivize early retirement ($20-30K to retire early), 5) improve resource stewardship among other actions.
Second, diversify and grow the economy beyond tourism and financial services and launch an aggressive job creation programme. Creative environment to attract more external investment, the lifeblood of the economy. Moreover, make effective investment in human capital to take up available jobs.
Thirdly, set in place internal and management control of work processes and practices. And establish standards, monitoring and measures to ensure value for money is being attained.
E. Leonard above laid some viable courses of action if government has the stones to act, i.e., an efficiency/benchmarking study, economic diversification and growth planning, setting in place standards, metrics and internal/management control to achieve value for money, more effective resource stewardship.......etc. Endorsed the message. To Leonard's suggestions, I add leveraging technology and more automation to collect the data needed to effectively govern.
Douglas was right in that the size of the civil service needs to be assessed. Hopefully, the hatchet man reference was for dramatic effect. The civil service if it is to be reduced will require a surgical scalpel, not a dull hatchet. Further, I have a different view on the need for additional legislations. They are needed if we want to call ourself First World. If we want to be in the major league, we must act like we deserve to be in major league. Is the BVI still a little sleepy hollow or a bird sanctuary?
Consequently, what is needed is a manpower audit to determine how many employees are needed to meet the needs of residents. It (government) needs to determine how many work years of effort is needed to meet requirements. A work year is 2080 hours. Audit aside, government has a problem. The private sector does not yet have the capacity to absorb workers that would be released from government as a result of the audit. Furthermore, politics would not permit any serious cutback of employees, regardless of the bloat. The system will have to collapse under its own weight for anything to happen.