'Let our experts run States projects'

THE chaos that led to the Beau Sejour overspend was revealed yesterday. Treasury and Resources deputy minister Charles Parkinson said project managers 'lost control' of spending as they battled to get the centre's revamp completed for the 2003 Island Games.

'Because of the scramble to get it ready for the Games and at the same time keep it open, there were architects giving verbal instructions to contractors to do jobs, but this was not confirmed in writing,' said Deputy Parkinson.

'In some cases it was not until one year after that these orders came to light. At the time the then Recreation Committee often had no information about the extra work being committed to because it was not written down. Only at the end was this realised when the contractor came up with its final claims.'

Deputy Mary Lowe last week confirmed that Culture and Leisure minister Peter Sirett told the Policy Council that the overspend on the leisure centre's facelift was '1.8m. ' 20% of the project's budgeted '9m.

The Treasury and Resources and Culture and Leisure Departments have carried out a joint review and a report is set to go to the States ' possibly in July or after the summer break.

Deputy Parkinson now wants to see all States capital projects run by the strategic property unit, a division of the Treasury.

'It is clear that spending departments should not be left in charge of what is a specialist business,' said Deputy Parkinson.

'I am not criticising them because I do not know any more than them, but the point is that there are professional people like surveyors and architects who should be in charge.'

The strategic property unit is already involved in projects such as the '50m. Les Nicolles secondary schools development, but in an advisory role with a team from Education taking the lead.

Deputy Parkinson said that with more in the pipeline such as a '25m. clinical block at the PEH, there was a need to make sure costs did not spiral out of control.

'We have an unfortunate history of overspends. We need to start managing the projects more professionally to try and eliminate this,' said Deputy Parkinson.

The Beau Sejour facelift was beset by problems, with frequent reports of poor workmanship, a local building firm that subcontracted going into liquidation and extra shifts put on to get it finished.

The facelift ' due to be completed in April in ample time for the summer's Games ' was eventually completed just days before they opened in June.

Dave Chilton, former director of recreation and now Culture and Leisure chief officer, admitted in late May 2003 that the redevelopment was over budget.

But since then there has been no official public information on the final cost. Deputy Sirett, who is out of the island until tomorrow, has previously said that this was for contractual reasons.