Governance reviews cost committees almost £40,000
GOVERNANCE reviews of States committees have cost almost £40,000, said Policy & Resources.
The figure emerged when president Deputy Gavin St Pier issued replies to written questions submitted by Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen.
He also said that there were no plans for similar reviews, but that the focus had moved to developing a greater understanding of good governance for officers and new members.
The questions were put to the committee before the governance report on Education, Sport & Culture was published, seeking to find out more about why it had been delayed.
But she also asked what the total costs were of the reports issued so far, which as well as ESC included Home Affairs, Health & Social Care and Policy & Resources itself.
‘Payments to the value of £21, 868 were made in 2019, and payments to the value of £17,023 have been made in 2020 (to date),’ replied Deputy St Pier.
The ESC governance review was commissioned by P&R on 29 October 2019, but the final report was delayed, at first by a requete that brought about changes to the model of secondary education and then by the pandemic.
‘At the height of the management of the Covid-19 emergency, from March onwards, all work, including progress with this review, had to take a lower priority for the States of Guernsey and its officers,’ said Deputy St Pier.
‘As soon as was reasonably possible, engagement with the author continued, ensuring all of the iterative processes associated with a report of this nature (e.g. factual accuracy checking) were completed.’
The final report was received by P&R in late July and published on 1 August.
Deputy St Pier also said that there were no immediate plans for further similar reviews of individual committees, largely due to the election coming up in October.
‘The focus is now on developing a greater understanding of good governance, for both officers and, in due course, newly elected members.
‘This is in keeping with Professor [Catherine] Staite’s recommendations and, further to this, work will continue to embed good practice across the organisation.
‘During the first year of the next political term, the intention is to review progress in a reasonably light touch manner.’
