Deputy accuses Education of cowardice

Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen has been pursuing answers to questions about whether a local candidate was offered the job only to be asked to withdraw their acceptance. She says the committee threatened to resign if their preferred candidate was not chosen.

Education, Sport & Culture president Matt Fallaize cited legal advice for not commenting on some of the questions asked in the States on Wednesday.

‘The lack of transparency and accountability of this committee hiding behind the shield of “legal advice” is truly cowardly and irresponsible,’ said Deputy Dudley-Owen.

‘If there is nothing to hide, they need to come out and say it. I believe that they have much to hide.

‘I have been told the truth of the situation and therefore the actions of the committee around this recruitment process call into question the integrity and credibility of the content of their policy letter.

‘If they are unable to carry out simple recruitment of key staff in a well-governed, open and accountable way, I believe that they will have applied similar principles of bad governance, short cuts and political dominance to their policy aspirations for the one school on two sites.

‘I have no confidence in this committee.’

Deputy Dudley-Owen resigned from Education in January 2018 when the then committee’s three-school model was rejected in favour of the current approach.

The committee has refused to confirm whether the successful candidate was the first choice.

Deputy Dudley-Owen has also raised concerns about whether an employment permit application clearly stated that there were locally-resident applicants available to take up the position.

Eight applications were received for the role, four of them from people already based in Guernsey.

During questioning in the States, Deputy Fallaize confirmed that he sat on a shortlisting panel of three, alongside two officers, and an interview panel alongside three officers and an external advisor.

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