A shake-up of an under-fire government department is on track to be up and running by the summer.

Enterprise Minister Laurence Skelly has hailed a significant milestone in the restructure of his department.

Business leaders are being sought to head up the four new executive agencies - Finance Isle of Man, Digital Isle of Man, Business Isle of Man and Visit Isle of Man.

Initial terms of reference for the four executive agencies have been agreed and the department is now advertising for a non-executive chairman for each.

Two chief executives are also being recruited to head up the finance and digital agencies respectively.

Mr Skelly said: ’This is a significant milestone in the development of the new department and the formation of the executive agencies.

’Created as public/private partnerships, the agencies will be decision-making bodies tasked with creating an environment where our economy thrives and key sectors of our industry are supported.

transformation

’The transformation of the department began last year and we are now entering the final stages of resourcing and launching the agency structure.’

He insisted that the creation of the agencies would not mean extra costs.

’The four non-executive chairman would be remunerated the same as statutory board at a maximum of £7,500,’ he said.

’We have reduced the number of posts within the department by at least a double digit number so we expect to achieve this on a cost-neutral basis.’

He said the key financial and digitial agency posts would be advertised externally.

The heads of the other two agencies have been appointed internally - with Angela Byrne named the new head of Visit Isle of Man and Adrian Moore becoming head of Business Isle of Man.

Mark Lewin, who as interim chief executive has guided the strategic review and implementation of the new agency structure, has been confirmed in post as chief executive of the department.

contract

Mr Skelly said the new chief executives of digital and finance would be appointed on contract, with the length of contract yet to be determined.

He said the first task would be to recruit the chairmen of the agencies as these would sit on the recruitment panel. The new structure would be up and running by the end of the second quarter of this year, he added.

Mr Skelly explained that the executive agency model has been around in different guises for some time in the UK, Ireland and other jurisdictions.

He said safeguards would be in place to ensure openness, transparency and accountability in terms of how they operate and manage their budgets.

As part of the department’s restructure, the number of political members has been cut from five to four.

Garff MHK Martyn Perkins will step down from his department role.

The four new executive agencies will each be represented by a political member - Lawrie Hooper MHK for Finance Isle of Man, Daphne Caine MHK for Digital Isle of Man, Tim Crookall MLC for Business Isle of Man, and Rob Callister MHK for Visit Isle of Man.

Mr Skelly added: ’These are the next steps towards the formation of the agencies and there will be more developments over the next few months.’