I can not help wondering about the provision of public services, by public and civil servants. As I understand it, public services are supplied by state employees to members of the public. They also provide various services to the tax payers in a community perspective which as individuals we could never afford to purchase, and therefore as a community we pay taxes that are used to provide these public services, like a big worker co-operative. We co-operate and pay taxes, and then public servants work to provide us with services, and then they get paid money, from our taxes. It’s a simple system really, and what is really good about this system, is, it works. At least it works in principle.
In Ireland at this point in time May 2010, the senior managers in local authorities (well over paid public servants in my humble opinion) are constantly making an argument for contracting out public services. Their main argument is they can not make a profit for providing these services. They are prepared to sacrifice their colleague’s jobs at the coal face of these services, because they can not manage the provision of the services efficiently.
Below is the text from a report in today’s RTE news section here is the link:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1003/waste.html
Council to pull out of bin collections
One of Dublin's four local authorities has announced plans to discontinue its waste collection service.
Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council is to appoint a contractor for its black and brown bins.
County Manager Owen Keegan is also to decide whether the council should continue to participate in the regional waste management strategy.
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Waste company Panda began operating in Dún Laoghaire in 2007 and householders have since abandoned the council in droves.
With subsequent union-council rationalising talks failing, officials now project their waste service will lose €10m this year.
Mr Keegan wants a procurement process to appoint a contractor for the council's black bins and pending brown bins for organic waste.
He is also engaging a consultant to assess if the council should participate any longer in the regional waste management strategy.
He has declined to comment, but a withdrawal could mean any new council waste contractor not being obliged to bring rubbish to the planned Ringsend incinerator.
This raises another cloud over the controversial plant, but Dublin City Council said last night there were no implications for infrastructure that would cause it problems.
Reacting to the news, Panda Director John Dunne said the company was not surprised by the council's decision to withdraw from the market.
'With every second home already served by Panda, and with prices 20% lower than the Council frozen until at least 2010, we look forward to welcoming even more new customers in the coming week,' Mr Dunne said.
Michael Sanfey, Head of Sales & Marketing with Greenstar said: 'The news reflects the changing role of local authorities in waste management.
'It has become increasingly commonplace for local authorities to effectively opt out of direct kerbside waste collection for financial and efficiency reasons.'
TEXT ENDS.
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The question I would like to ask in this matter is: If we are to contract out public services like rubbish collection, and closing derelict public swimming pools on the basis that they can not make a profit from them, then why would we need the senior public servants? We could just stop paying taxes and allow the private sector to provide us with whatever services we want to purchase.
Voila no more civil or public servants, no more taxes, no more police services, no more jails, no more schools or hospitals or sewage services or public parks or public roads management services, etc etc etc.
I have news for the senior public servants making these arguments. If you continue to make these stupid arguments because you do not have the management skills to manage these services efficiently, then ultimately your job is surplus to requirements, Bye Bye and no redundancy compensation will be paid to you.
I might be idealistic on this issue, but in my world, if the private sector can make money from providing alternatives to public services in a normal market driven system, they find a way to do it from their own resources. They do not need public servants to make the arguments on their behalf.
I want to tell all civil and public servants that are making noises about profits. You should concentrate on doing your own job efficiently, because from now on I am going to make the argument that we should do away with all public services and allow what you call the efficient private sector to do their jobs. I may not get my wishes, but I will make it very difficult for you to justify your position as an inefficient manager of the provision of public services.
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