Page 1039 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 2 May 2006
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major undertaking. A range of issues are to be determined in relation to set-up cost, ongoing costs and the transitional cost.
To go to your question: it is anticipated at this stage that there will be an up-front capital cost of outfitting and refitting and set-up of the shared services agreement of the order of $5 million. We are anticipating additional costs of just over $2 million in other costs associated with the co-location of that number of staff.
It should be acknowledged, in the context of an overall shared services work force of the order of 800 or perhaps just over, that almost 400 of those staff are currently centralised in terms of arrangements that are already in place, particularly centred in InTACT.
MR SPEAKER: The minister’s time has expired.
MRS DUNNE: Chief Minister, how will you achieve the savings that you have alluded to? Could you elaborate further on that?
MR STANHOPE: Thank you, Mrs Dunne. The Shared Services Centre will employ in the order of 800 or 800-plus. Somewhere around 400 staff are essentially already part of that organisation, centred essentially in InTACT. We are talking about a transfer ultimately of the order of 400 staff to join the 400 staff currently employed centrally or through InTACT. That is the broad brush in terms of numbers. There are over 1,000 corporate services staff now. The Shared Services Centre will employ in the order of 800.
Mrs Dunne: That means 200 will be losing their jobs.
MR STANHOPE: No, it does not mean that at all. Of the staff that will not be transferred to the Shared Services Centre—it is in the order of 220 or 230—the significant majority will be retained in departments as a vital part of the strategic work that is undertaken in all departments by some of those corporate services staff, particularly chief finance officers. Some of those finance staff that deal in a transactional way with issues of finance, those that pay the bills and undertake day-to-day transactions, will transfer to the Shared Services Centre, but the strategic finance officers and officials within departments will not. That is the rough breakdown of the numbers.
There are in excess of 1,000; 800 will be employed within the Shared Services Centre. The significant majority of the 200-plus that will not be transferred will remain. There will be a reduction in staff. At this stage, that has not been finally determined. At the end of the day, the reduction in staff in the Shared Services Centre, we anticipate at this stage, will be fewer than 70.
Public service—management
MR PRATT: My question without notice is directed to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, during an interview on ABC radio on 19 April 2006 you were asked about the rapid growth in the number of public servants in the ACT government during your period as Chief Minister. In response to these questions you said:
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