The Deloitte State of the State 2018-2019 Northern Ireland Report. Grim reading but at least the photos are pretty…

Yesterday Deloitte launched their State of the State 2018-2019 Northern Ireland Report. Sir Malcolm McKibbin, former head of the civil service who has found a new home in the warm embrace of the private sector was on hand at the event to answer awkward questions from the assorted hacks and bloggers. The key buzzwords at the launch were Strong leadership and innovation, digital transformation and impending cliff edges in public sector services. From the Press release: Northern Ireland must rethink how …

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State of the State: “Northern Ireland appears to be pausing at a junction.”

Deloitte released its State of the State report today which examines the structure and levels of government across the UK. The 42 page report outlines public spending levels and the impact of cuts across the country in the last financial year. Whilst the report does look at the UK as a whole (I would encourage you to look through the report) it does devote some pages to Northern Ireland’s economic performance and the challenges we face. Being the public service …

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Castlereagh Borough Council hurriedly accept the Deloitte report’s recommendations (updated)

Three months after the draft Deloitte report was presented to Castlereagh Borough Council on 26 May, the final version was discussed during a private session of the council last night. This morning’s radio bulletins seemed to have gone all West Country with frequent mentions of “luvver” as the reports’ conclusions and political reaction was discussed. Castlereagh Council curtly answered an FOI in May asking for a copy of the report with wording that was believable (though fell far short of …

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Castlereagh’s Deloitte report clears Iris Robinson

The Deloitte report into the awarding of the Lock Keeper’s Inn contract to Kirk McCambley was delivered to Castlereagh Borough Council tonight and gave everyone concerned – Iris Robinson, as well that of other councillors and council officers – a clean bill of health. After the private meeting of council, the DUP’s Jimmy Spratt said: Iris Robinson has been totally exonerated and that is very clear … There is absolutely no criticism of her at any point throughout the report. …

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NI Water Timeline: “Administrative procedures are the responsibility of management…”

I’ve been working on a timeline of the NI Water story just to try and put some of the material we have into some kind of objective order…  I’ve gone for completion rather than trying to hone in on any one aspect… However a number of things jump out… One is how long Priestly is in post before any of the problems identified by MacKenzie emerge (Hansard also tells us Nicola Brennan conducted three successive audits without finding them either). Two, …

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