The lack of a clear strategy for winding us up has made us inefficient and unproductive ? and a waste of taxpayers' money
The residence of a quango is a gloomy place. People pass each other in the lifts and do not smile. Austere security guards distrustfully check passes. Everywhere there is an air of despondency, a feeling that we are in mourning.
And we are. Six months have passed since we heard the news ? a mere rumour, at first, that the coalition would be culling us sometime before 2013. I remember feeling excited; change is good. Then a collective denial. Now, we are certain it will happen and we have all become weary. The coalition's public sector cuts have been criticised widely, and yes, I am against the large-scale cuts in general. But my gripe regarding the quangos is not so much that we are being cut ? but the way in which it is being done.
If they think we're useless, there should be a strategy to kill us off. But they've acknowledged (at least in the case of our quango) that what we do is essential, so ultimately it will have to be done elsewhere. They don't have clear plans and they don't want to pay to make us go. They let us bleed us to death. Superficially, it may look as though they are saving taxpayers' money, but the reality is that they have rendered us inefficient and unproductive. The costs in the long term due to poor management and transferring everything we do to other organisations will be astronomical.
Following a leak of the list of 177 doomed quangos in September last year, the public bodies bill ? which will allow ministers to make changes to quangos without modifying laws ? was introduced in November. It was done in a hurry, perhaps on the back of an envelope. Initially, the alleged purpose for introducing it was to save costs. Now it is clear there won't be savings, so the reason cited is to improve "accountability". But no one is convinced.
Indeed, parliament isn't impressed. Bernard Jenkins, the Tory chairman of the public administration select committee, said the bill was "botched", and a Baroness Thornton, a Labour peer, called it "hokey cokey".
The bill started its journey in the Lords, where peers are working their way alphabetically and deliberately slowly through the list. They have already succeeded in saving one quango from demise and their discussions could go on for months.
Meanwhile, back in our quango, we are in limbo. Two years of uncertainty is a long time ? it is a drawn-out period of insidious suffering. Remember: public sector workers are motivated by doing good. We don't do it for the money. So when we have our purpose removed, we feel violated.
Productivity is down, motivation is low and teams are being decimated as people leave and we are not allowed to replace them. For some roles, we can recruit from other dying quangos, but realistically no one wants to go sideways, and very few people apply. It is very difficult to develop a strategy if you don't know how many staff you'll have by the next business quarter. To fill in gaps, staff find themselves working above their grades, doing jobs they were never asked to do.
Senior staff panic and distrust their teams. There is no clear vision and no one taking risks. Quangos have gone through these experiences in the past and it isn't easy. So why the hush-hush? Why do I have to write this under a pseudonym and not reveal which quango I work for?
Quangos have a strange relationship with government. We are supposed to be independent, but we feel as if we are on the end of their strings. Our senior staff scold us if we express our (anti-coalition) political opinions. The people with influence do not dare to challenge the events. As the empty seats around us increase in number, we worry about the lack of jobs elsewhere. Where will all the unwanted public sector workers go? We keep our heads down, but feel rocked at our core. Our leaders are not speaking up for us. There is no one who really cares.
I think it is this lack of care that hurts most of all. Our jobs are about caring ? improving people's lives and even saving them. This is our truth, our raison d'�tre. Our reward is to see we're being valued. Now we don't even get a smile in the lift.
Source: http://feeds.guardian.co.uk/~r/theguardian/commentisfree/rss/~3/FvPefbkuvXc/quango-winding-up
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