Burrows cites 'rank incompetence' at Stormont and 'blame the Brits' attitude for state of NI's public services
People are not getting the public services they deserve because of the “rank incompetence” at Stormont and incessant “blaming the Brits” for issues under the Assembly’s control, the UUP leader has said.
Jon Burrows has hit out at a litany of issues in the public sector, arguing that a lack of accountability is causing public services to fail.
The North Antrim MLA says that despite an Audit Office report criticising the performance of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) – less that 0.1% of the organisation’s staff have been marked as underperforming.
He made the comments during a speech in the Assembly on Tuesday – taking aim at political opponents for apportioning the blame elsewhere.
“I've noted that whilst the people of Northern Ireland enjoy relative peace now, they don't enjoy the full prosperity and the first class public services that they deserve. Mainly because of the rank incompetence of some people here – and the incessant blaming of the Brits, as we just heard from a Sinn Fein member, about issues that actually lie directly within the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Assembly”, the North Antrim MLA said.
He cited an example of schools spending “hundreds of pounds to change a light bulb” because of rules that prevent a caretaker working above a certain height.
“There has to be a call-out fee. Procurement is ripping off the public left, right and centre across all our public services. Walls in schools that should cost £1000 to paint cost £4000 to paint because of rip off procurement”, Mr Burrows said.
The UUP leader said the “lack of accountability in our Executive and our Stormont assembly is astonishing” – saying that when he asked about Police Ombudsman’s security clearance he was passed around between the Executive Office, justice department and the NI Secretary of State. “Round and round it goes, where it stops – nobody ever knows”, he said.
Mr Burrows added that when he asked who is responsible for the line management of the head of the civil service, the finance minister didn't know. “When I ask how many members of the civil service, and it's not a dig at the hard working frontline members… have been marked as underperforming in the organisation – it is 24 out of 24,500. Less than 0.01%”.