RADICAL changes to the way many of our public services are run are proposed in a long-awaited independent report published today (Tuesday).
The revised Scope of Government Report recommends privatising or contracting out services to make them more cost-effective and to ease the burden on the tax payer.
Other services could be ‘corporatised’ – that is, kept in public ownership but run commercially by an independent arms-length company.
The report updates the first Scope and Structure of Government report from 2006, but iomtoday understands it retains may of the same recommendations for the corporatisation of the MEA, Water Authority, Post Office, the airport, harbour and the buses, and the contracting out of the NSC, Villa Marina-Gaiety and Operations Division services.
While the previous chief minister, Tony Brown, left the report on the shelf, the need for a cheaper, more streamlined government after the imposition of the new VAT-sharing agreement with the UK has meant the report has been dusted down and examined again.
Read the full version of this story in this week’s Isle of Man Examiner