Speaking last month at CSW publisher Dods’ ‘Delivering Growth through Infrastructure Investment’ conference, Lord Paul Deighton said that under the current system civil servants “change jobs just as they start to understand what they’re doing, leading to the wrong kind of focus when delivering a project.
“If you run a 10-year project, and you’re just working on it in year three to four, it’s just human nature that all you really care about is getting out in year four without screwing it up,” he added. “You’re not focused on delivering it in year ten.”
Deighton, who took up the Treasury post in January, argued for “a very different mentality” in staff deployment – a call backed by civil service chief Sir Bob Kerslake, who’s promised action (see news).