40 percent to save on coffee joint agreement – Aftenposten

40 percent to save on coffee joint agreement – Aftenposten

– The report shows that there is considerable scope for improving and simplifying the public sector. Only by entering into joint coffee agreement for all ministries, it should supposedly be possible to save 40 percent of coffee expenditure in ministries, says modernization Minister Jan Tore Sanner (H) Aftenposten.

Ever since he became minister, he has hunted on time thieves and unnecessary bureaucracy in the public sector. A new report on the efficiency of the administrative functions of ministries was ready just before Christmas. This report has a number of suggestions that can provide savings of 210 million a year.

Finance gjerrigst

– I expect that ministries now carefully review the report and find out how they can perform administrative tasks on a cheaper way. The report is a good toolbox of measures that can provide obvious benefits, both in the short and long term, says Sanner.

In the comparison between the different ministries, it emerges that the Finance Ministry is the Government gjerrigste. None of the other ministries resolve the administrative tasks cheaper than them. At the bottom of the list ports Defense Ministry, which by comparison has almost three times as high administrative costs per. employee.

Some of the disparity is probably due to the Ministry of Defence has additional expenses related to the handling of classified information, and not least to the operation of a separate graded computer system.

Better collaboration in new government quarter?

– The report shows that it is possible to save money on collecting ministries administrative tasks in a central unit. It will be particularly interesting to look at in connection with the establishment of a new government quarter, says Sanner.

Today ministries each their IT departments, personnel sections and mail receipt. Operating costs for these units varies violently from department to department.

Agriculture and Food uses over three and a half times as much resources on personnel administration, the Ministry of Finance. Labour and Social Affairs uses over five times as much resources on economy, which the Ministry of Transport. Ministry of the Environment has three times as many employees anteroom, which the Foreign Ministry.

– I reckon that ministries will now ask themselves why some people manage to do certain tasks so much cheaper than other services, he said.

Openness costs money

The biggest administrative functions in the ministries are archival and document management, which has 163.5 FTEs. These bureaucrats working to journal the 200,000 documents that go in and out of the ministries of the year, as well as answering access requests from the public.

– The report is a good starting point to discuss whether this is a service for example could have been collected in a common unit, says Sanner.

– When do you think the goal of saving 210 million could be reached?

– I hope we can see the effect of the improvement measures continuously over the next few years.

lars.magne.hovtun@aftenposten.no

Published: 21.des. 2014 9:44 p.m.