Major Political Row Erupts Over Bernagh House Jobs
19 February 2012 |
Posted by Jim Masson |
A MAJOR political row is emerging as Down District Council has challenged the credibility of the consultation process being run by the Department of Health's Business Service Organisation (BSO) over the future of shared services.
The future of 33 finance jobs at Bernagh House is at stake as a current proposal suggests that they be moved to a new location in Ballymena. Staff have already said they are unprepared to travel this distance to work from the Downpatrick area and that it will lead to voluntary redundancies.
Down District Council has uncovered alarming overestimates in the costs used by the Department of Health when recommending that finance staff located in Downpatrick move to Ballymena.
According to a Council spokesperson, the costs of refurbishing Trust property at the Downshire site are so excessive estimated at £1,800 per square metre that Bernagh House is effectively ruled out as a preferred centre for shared services, "despite the excellent performance of its staff. The misleading figures in the consultation document are set out in the Department’s schedule of capital costs (Table 2).
Under threat: Bernagh House in Downpatrick, which has received top awards for its efficiency as an administrative centre
"The Department of Health is currently consulting on the location of administrative services which support Northern Ireland’s Health Service. The consultation ends on Wednesday 29 February 2012. This radical move will rationalise the number of centres providing finance, human resource and payroll services. The current proposal by the Department to establish four centres of expertise, if adopted, will mean the closure of the finance centre located at the Downshire site in Downpatrick with the loss of 33 local jobs."
There has been widespread anger from Down District councillors and South Down MLA's (responses will be posted on Monday).
The Council spokesperson added, "After calling for disclosure of additional documents referred to in the consultation document, Down District Council has discovered what it believes to be misleading figures used by the Department’s BSO. This calls into serious question the credibility of the consultation exercise.
"Down Council has consulted leading building industry experts and a "more realistic figure for upgrading Bernagh House and the Old College Building is around £700 per square metre and not the £1,500 - £1800 used in the consultation document. New build costs in the current competitive building sector would be only around £800 per square metre. It is also clear from inquiries made by the Council that the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust were not involved in costing the proposals for their own buildings. Assertions that Trust staff were involved in supplying condition surveys for the local buildings have also been rejected by the Trust."
The Department of Health's Potential Centre for Excellence Centres figues uncovered reveal that the Bernagh House site is the third lowest in annual running costs at £38562 of the 12 sites listed as possible candidates for the shared services accomodation. The Ballymena proposed site comes it at £54,468 running costs per annum.
Speaking from Bernagh House, a spokesperson representing the 33 finance staff said, “It is as we suspected. BSO is determined to relocate jobs away from Downpatrick. These inflated figures put forward to justify their case provide evidence that there is a determination to make the Downpatrick location appear to be uneconomic.
"During the consultation period the Council and the staff affected have requested a cost breakdown for refurbishment of each of the proposed shared services centres. This was refused on a number of occasions. Neither the Department nor the BSO were willing to explain how they arrived at such a high figure for refurbishing office accommodation in Downpatrick. The Department thought they would fool us into believing this was a scientific costing exercise. Their refusal to provide a detailed breakdown of the capital costs confirms that these are little more than convenient figures designed to provide a cover story for an unfair decision.”
Following the uncovering of this infomation, Down District Council has agreed to raise the issue again with Health Minister Edwin Poots and has written to local MLA's bringing this matter to their attention and seeking their support. They have also called for the consultation period to be extended to allow reliable figures to be calculated and made available to interested parties including the affected staff and the Council.
In January, a consultation evening hosted by the BSO was held in the St Patrick centre and a cynical audience questioned the proposals to recommend the removal of the administrative finance unit and relocating the posts to a location in Ballymena. Read the meeting report at:
