"Glaring anomalies" in the decentralisation programme have cloaked hidden costs which will run to millions of euro, according to an analysis carried out by the union representing senior civil servants.
In a memo to members, the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants says there are substantial shortfalls in the numbers willing to fill senior posts. However, these are not reflected in the overall application figures for each department or agency, it says. For example, in the case of the proposed move of the Irish Prison Service to Longford, there are 145 applicants for 158 posts.
But there are "glaring anomalies" not reflected in the report this week of the decentralisation implementation committee, the memo claims.
The figure of 145 includes 45 prison officer applicants for five prison officer posts and 45 clerical officer applicants for 24 posts.
"A great concern from a management perspective is that, while 67 posts from principal to higher executive officer level are to transfer, only 14 applicants have applied at these levels to go to Longford." This means there is a substantial shortfall, of 53, in the number of middle to senior managers willing to move to the Prison Service's proposed new headquarters, the union says.
It adds that there are no positions elsewhere in the Civil Service to which the current holders of those jobs, who have expertise in State security, can immediately be transferred.
The salary costs of creating over 50 new posts in Longford would be around €3 million, the memo says. "At the same time, the wages of the existing management staff who are surplus to requirements must be paid."
The union says it and others expressed surprise, at a meeting with the Department of Finance this week, that the implementation committee's report had not addressed the shortfalls in applications for particular grades.
The memo, signed by the AHCPS general secretary Mr Seán Ó Riordáin, says the potential for "major churning" of jobs and staff surpluses, resulting from the decentralisation programme, gave rise to questions that had not yet been answered.
The memo did, however, welcome the "more modest" approach to decentralisation reflected in the implementation committee's report. Instead of transferring 10,500 public servants within three years, it is now planned to relocate 2,130 posts by 2008 in the programme's initial phase.
