Gartner: Governments need to cut more

Despite many Western governments making cuts left, right and centre, it is not enough, analyst warns

Cutting back: Governments will need to keep cutting back to survive the economy

Governments will need to make even more cost savings amid the ongoing economic uncertainty, according to analyst Gartner.

This means many countries that have already outlined swingeing cuts to public sector services will have to look for other areas of cost savings to stay in the black.

Andrea Di Maio, vice president at Gartner, said: “Government organisations in most of the Western world have already gone through one or two cost-cutting cycles over the past few years.

“However, the aftermath of the most recent global financial crisis, the sluggish recovery in some countries and the significant level of debt require continued and increasing cost-containment discipline, and are forcing government organisations to explore new avenues of cost reduction.”

Some areas identified by Gartner for cuts are sourcing and procurement, e-government and government integration and workforce management.

Claudio Da Rold, vice president at Gartner, said: “Overall, a number of signals indicate that the financial climate is forcing the UK and European governments in general to follow in the footsteps of commercial organisations.

“We expect that governments in Europe are likely to follow the UK’s spending cuts and gradually move towards considering consolidation, outsourcing, global delivery models and industrialised services as potentially viable options to reduce spending.”