That will lead to a slimmed-down workforce over the next two years as a revamped council-wide service is phased in.

However, that came with a warning from chief executive Alastair Keddie that if the council fails to deliver the savings, significantly more than 60 jobs could be lost.

The ultimate aim is to achieve annual savings of £4.4 million from 2014 onwards.

That is on top of £20 million worth of savings the council must find over the next four years to balance the books.

And chief financial officer Mark Palmer has also warned that the £20 million figure is probably an under-estimate of the level of savings the council needs to identify.

Local leaders from the four trade unions who represent many of the 4,100 council staff are set for face-to-face talks with councillors next week to discuss the financial crisis.

Unison branch secretary Irene Sinclair predicted more "pain and misery", both for council staff and for the public, faced with cuts to services.

Over the next five years, council chiefs predict the DBS programme will save the council £26 million but also create additional costs of £11 million, adding up to a nett saving of £15 million.

Depute convener, Councillor Allan Wright, insisted that the DBS programme was not just about saving money, although he accepted that that would happen.

"What the programme will and must deliver," he said, "is a new order, a better way of delivering services for the people of Moray."

Part of the plan includes the purchase and transformation of the former Aldi-owned supermarket on the High Street into an extension of the council headquarters and a reconfiguration of the main HQ building, which should be completed in 2011.

The cost of acquiring and converting the former supermarket, upgrading the existing HQ and purchasing new software and hardware to support the new programme will be in the region of £8 million over the next year. The council hopes to sell off 20 surplus offices around Elgin to offset some of this cost.

The council has already spent more than £750,000, including £110,000 in consultancy fees, in drawing up the major revamp over the last 14 months.

And members of the policy and resources committee were told this week that the cost of a DBS team to support the implementation plan will be £525,000 each year over the next two years, money which will be taken from the council's reserves.

Mr Keddie told councillors: "We all realise that if we don't deliver this programme and £4.4 million in savings, we will lose significantly more than 60 staff. It is in everybody's interests to deliver this."

The key to DBS success, added Mr Palmer, is how well colleagues at the council engage with the programme.

However, Councillor Mike Shand (Elgin North) said that it might be difficult to secure the commitment of 60 staff "who are about to go out the door".

And Councillor Barry Jarvis (Elgin North) claimed that the burden would be placed on front-line staff, some of them among the lowest-paid, who would be asked to become jacks and jills of all trades. He expressed concern at future stress management for council employees.

Councillor Gordon McDonald (Buckie) said that senior managers had to deliver the firm message that this change has to be made.

And Councillor Wright said there should be no suggestion of people being "dragged kicking and screaming" with DBS.

"We are again speaking with one voice, giving very clear direction to the corporate management team that the councillors are very much behind this and we expect this to be implemented across the council," he added.

The programme will see new working methods adopted across all council departments.

"The staff from each service will require to devote substantial amounts of time to supporting the change process and adopting new working methods," Mr Palmer said.

The changes will include more mobile and flexible working, with more staff working from the office, home or in the field.

The council will also look to reduce the number of public access points with more phone, e-mail and face-to-face contact, providing a more focused and comprehensive service.

The council currently has 21 offices in Elgin and 13 public access points in the town, with annual property running costs of £1.24 million. The aim is to create one access point for the general public and cut the amount of office accommodation.

Rather than functioning as separate departments within the council, senior managers will challenge staff to adopt a more corporate approach to providing services.

The council has 224 public access telephone numbers. These will be reduced to just six, with the number of e-mail addresses also streamlined from the present 290.

A total of 20 face-to-face access locations across Moray will be cut to four, located in Elgin, Forres, Keith and Buckie.

The council's contact centre will be expanded from eight to 47 seats as more council departments come under the umbrella of the one-stop telephone advice centre.

Local union reps will formally meet councillors for the first time on Tuesday to discuss the situation facing staff.

Three reps from Unison (which represents 1,200 council workers and is the biggest single union at the authority), two from the GMB, and one each from Unite and UCAT will attend the meeting with elected members.

Mrs Sinclair said that the lack of proper communication with front-line staff over the DBS programme will be one of the key issues raised.

"Senior managers are running DBS, and they have talked to second- and third-level staff, but have not talked to the people actually doing the jobs," she said.

While the unions do not welcome the loss of 60 jobs, she said it was an inevitable outcome of the process.

"We will be working with our members to achieve the best possible outcome for them.

"More jobs could be at risk. The next four years are going to be very tough.

"The DBS exercise on its own is bad enough for members, although we can see why the council is doing it and there may be some good things to come from it," she said. "But when you throw into the pot four years of drastic cutbacks, it means more pain and misery for the staff and for the public, who will have reductions in services."

The Scottish Government's Improvement Service, which assists local councils make efficiency changes to their organisations, has been involved in Moray's programme from the start.

Improvement Service manager, David Amos, said Moray's programme was a particularly challenging one.

"Moray Council can be congratulated for grasping the nettle and doing something about the financial challenges that lie ahead for every authority," he said.

c.saunderson@northern-scot.co.uk