Gardiner questions Paisley on over-staffing in his Department
Sam Gardiner MLA, the Ulster Unionist Assemblyman for Upper Bann, got an assurance from the First Minister Ian Paisley, during Assembly Question time on Monday, that the First Minister would report back to the Assembly on the eradication of duplication and over-staffing within his Department.
Mr Gardiner said :
“I told the First Minister, after he gave me a lengthy list of all the co-ordinating jobs his Department carried out, that one man’s co-ordination was another man’s duplication. My concern is that for every job supposedly co-ordinating the work of government in Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness’s joint department, there is a carbon copy of that job in each of the Northern Ireland Departments. So under the name of co-ordination we are, in fact, getting duplication and that this is costing the taxpayer a fortune in inflated staff salaries.”
“The Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister is a flabby and overweight Department and this has just been made worse by the two Junior Ministers, Ian Paisley Jr and Gerry Kelly, appointing two Special Advisers. It wasn’t just that we were getting what I call bureaucracy-creep with the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister growing and growing. It was the way these two individuals were appointed. It was done behind the Assembly’s back through an Order in Council in Whitehall. They were clearly wanting to avoid Assembly scrutiny. They knew there would be trouble in the Assembly over adding two new senior staff with a whole pyramid of supporting staff below them to the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister payroll.”
“The First Minister had promised he will report back to the Assembly on the reduction of this duplication within his and Mr McGuinness’s joint department. I await that report with interest and will lose no opportunity reminding the First Minister and his deputy of their commitment.”