IoM Govt Seeks To Cuts Costs

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

20 September 2010

The Isle of Man government has announced that it has begun a comprehensive review of the way the government operates to "achieve greater efficiencies, cost savings and increase economic revenue."

The government said on September 15 that all departments and statutory boards are working to identify potential savings in order to support the government’s previously announced five-year strategy to rebalance the budget following the reduction in the Isle of Man’s share of value-added tax revenue with the United Kingdom.

An appointed team will oversee the project, with a list of options, including measures aimed to lower staffing costs to be prepared for the perusal of the Council of Ministers. Subject to approval of this plan, retrenchment measures are expected to be implemented from this Autumn. The government said that, in addition to reducing bureaucracy and scrutinizing income and costs, the review will also help to sharpen government’s focus on providing services around the needs of the people who use them.

Commenting on the review, the island’s Chief Minister, Tony Brown, said:

“In April I asked a team of officers to begin to investigate ways of reducing costs across government operations, whilst protecting important public services. The Treasury also asked departments to put together money-saving ideas relevant to their own areas of responsibility. We have started to draw up the long list of options and will soon be looking at how practical they will be to achieve. One proposal is to make better use of our resources through the introduction of ‘shared service centres’ for human resources, finance and estates activities. This would bring together staff from across government who carry out similar tasks in these areas to create new ‘centres of excellence’.”

“In addition, we are looking at the way government buys its goods and services, with a major strand of work focusing on procurement to ensure we achieve best value for the public money we are spending. I have also asked the central team to look at improving our service delivery via the government website, which has the potential to achieve significant cost savings for the public purse.”

Brown said that while no area of government would be immune from change, one of his overriding priorities was to safeguard essential services and benefits. He added that the current review is designed to build on the momentum created by the restructuring of departments, which placed a greater emphasis on driving forward the island’s economy.

“February’s budget, the restructuring initiative, and our Transforming Government programme are all integral strands of the overall strategy to rebalance our finances and ensure that the island’s government emerges leaner, fitter and better equipped to face the future," Brown concluded.

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