Former chief says police should see if law was broken

It comes as momentum grows behind the need for an independent inquiry into all the circumstances surrounding how the new head of curriculum and standards was chosen and whether there was undue political inference.

And in further developments yesterday, a whistleblower has claimed that the local candidate who initially accepted the job would not have withdrawn if a meeting, instigated following a resignation threat by the Education president Matt Fallaize, had not taken place.

The HR officer who resigned in disgust at the process before going public with her concerns has also told the Guernsey Press that she would co-operate fully with any review and would be happy to face scrutiny.

‘I don’t do this for myself but for the candidate who was denied a promotion following a fair interview process given the role was clearly always going to go to someone else,’ said Amanda Singleton.

Mrs Singleton resigned when she was asked to fill out a long-term employment permit application for Clare Sealy because she felt she would be making an unlawful declaration if she stated that there were no suitable on-island candidates. Three of the four shortlisted were locally-based.

In a letter to the Guernsey Press, Mr Wyeth said making a false statement in connection with a employment permit application was a serious criminal offence punishable by up to two years imprisonment.

He served in Guernsey between 1997 and 2003 and added that no citizen or politician should be above the law, or appear to be so.

‘Apart from the person who signed such a false statement, any person who counselled or procured such a statement or conspired to have it made may also have committed an offence.’

‘This offence could be committed by a person or persons on behalf of a private or public sector organisation.’

Education, Sport & Culture has refuted claims that anything improper happened in the appointment of Clare Sealy as the head of curriculum and standards; specifically it has denied allegations that it did anything inappropriate in the application for an employment permit.

In April, an interview panel voted by 4-1 in favour of appointing a local head teacher to the newly-created role, Education president Matt Fallaize was the sole vote against.

The first-choice candidate accepted the job, but later withdrew, and instead it was offered to London-based head teacher Ms Sealy, who Deputy Fallaize had voted in favour of.

Deputy Fallaize issued a statement earlier this week saying claims that the committee may have broken the law were ‘false’, stressing that the committee was not involved in the application at any stage.

Mrs Singleton described the whole appointment process as a ‘sham’ and filed papers for an employment and discrimination tribunal hearing. But the States dropped their defence against the constructive dismissal claim.

Mr Wyeth no longer lives in Guernsey but he felt compelled to add his views after reading about Mrs Singleton’s refusal to fill out the application and the documents that she had produced.

‘I can only presume that someone else was subsequently asked to make an application.

‘They may or may not have committed an offence depending on their knowledge of the appointment.

‘Again a person or person who asked them to do this may have committed the predicate offences.

‘This is a matter that should now be the subject of a criminal investigation to determine if and by whom criminal offences have been committed by any person.’

The Policy & Resources Committee has announced that it is undertaking a ‘fact-finding exercise’ into the controversial appointment.

The Scrutiny Management Committee is meeting early next week to discuss the situation, and its president, Deputy Chris Green, has indicated that an external review may be necessary.

‘Personally, although the fact-finding exercise is useful, I am not sure that this will be sufficient.’