efficiency drive: 'Just the beginning'
Thu 20 Mar 2008
19/03/2008
The government's recent efficiency drive is just the beginning of public sector reform, its efficiency czar has said. Sir Peter Gershon told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he felt the need for the drive "has been emphasised by the tightening public finances situation". "And I’ve always taken the view that, really, to have sustained improvement in public sector efficiency you need something like a ten-year programme," he added. He told the programme the scheme had led to reform in the NHS procurement procedure, which saved £1.2 billion over the last three years. There are concerns that the government's aim to achieve savings of more than £30 billion could lead to job losses and that efficiency in the workplace is hard to exactly define. "Measurement of efficiency in the public sector is much more challenging than it is in a private sector environment where it is relatively simple, you can look at sales per employee," Sir Gershon acknowledged.
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