Bad managers need to be held fully accountable

THE news in the past month has been pretty dire again. The Government is under more pressure to get a grip on the economy, increase growth and fund our public services.

- Angus Long

Yes, some of the issues they inherited from the previous government, but to a large degree, many of the problems are down to the attitude, management and running of the public sector.

The vast majority of hard-working people pay their taxes and, in return, just want some decent public services.

For some years now, in my view, the running of the public sector and many public servants has been dire and if not radically addressed nothing will improve. I could fill several pages on this subject, so will limit it to some of the more alarming. Here we go, in no particular order.

First up the “fat cat” public officials. According to recent news reports there are 350 public managers earning more than the PM and more than 1,500 earning over £100,000.

Whenever challenged, these senior civil servants defend their colossal pay with the clichéd mantra that to attract and retain the best executives they need such generous remuneration packages. While I acknowledge that those who run large organisations effectively should have decent salaries, the fact is, most of them are not. Indeed, practically every government department has track records of monumental waste and inefficiency that has cost the taxpayer many billions of pounds and with the likes of health, lives too.