The Tribune

DEADLINES and budgets don’t seem to mean much in government.

When private businesses – or private individuals – have a project to complete, these are very important points.

When will it be done by? How much will it cost? How much can I afford? All pertinent questions when you’re doing things the right way.

Government seems unencumbered by such a need for planning.

New prison cost? More than double it!

Renovations to Government House? Make it twice the cost!

Hit a deadline for completing a project? Sure, as long as it’s not the first deadline, or the second, third or fourth.

How about those Village Road roadworks that were supposed to be completed by the start of the school year? The children are done with that year and still workmen are fussing on with sidewalks incomplete and no sign of street lights that might have stopped more than a few fender-benders in the past nine months.

Change orders is the reason the contractor gives for the increased cost at Government House. That contractor can’t say what the final cost will be, just “about double”.

Changes are also one of the reasons behind the delays on Village Road, where the design was changing even after the digging had begun. A whole roundabout was added to the original proposal – which seems like the kind of thing one would plan ahead of time.

The prison plan, too, will reportedly see considerable changes, though the details of niceties such as the bidding process seem to be murky rather than transparent.

Still, it’s not as if it’s your money or our money that the government is spending – oh wait, yes it is.

That prison is an extra $50m of taxpayer’s money, that renovation is nigh on another $10m perhaps.

To quote a line reportedly said by former US Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”

We might be talking million with an m rather than billion with a b, but the principle is the same. Either way, when spending doubles and doubles, it’s the taxpayer’s pocket that ends up lighter.

Are any consequences ever felt when budgets are missed by such a margin, or when deadlines repeatedly whoosh by?

There never seem to be. If you send someone to the store to buy you something and they come back hours late and having spent twice the money, you might think more than twice about trusting them with your money and time again.

Are there penalty clauses in contracts? Or if the contractor is diligently carrying out instructions but those instructions keep changing, does the appropriate minister come out and raise their hands and say the extra cost is down to them? You can hear the silence on that one.

We are delighted to see that Government House has been renovated – it was certainly overdue.

But we cannot help but think that better planning – and perhaps treating public money with the same care as we would money spent on a personal project – would bring a better return for the taxpayer.