Covid response review to be internal, not independent

Policy & Resources offered two options, the first, its preferred option, calling for a programme of debriefs through the Guernsey Local Resilience Forum.

It was chosen by members rather than asking the Scrutiny Management Committee to go out to tender for an independent review of the Bailiwick’s strategic response, which was expected to cost some £250,000.

P&R vice-president Deputy Heidi Soulsby said the independent review would be complex, engage a wider range of services and officers, impact current work programmes and take longer, for ‘questionable additional value’.

Deputy Lyndon Trott questioned the price tag for the independent review.

He said all the independent inquiries he had known had come in well under budget and attributing a high cost to them was a ruse to put members off. He said islanders needed to have faith in the process.

Many deputies spoke in debate and several admitted they were uncertain which way to vote.

Deputy Nick Moakes said he eventually came down on the side of not having a review at all.

‘Is Covid over?’ he asked. ‘It certainly isn’t in some parts of the world and it came back and bit us again.’

He argued any wash up should only happen after the event.

P&R president Peter Ferbrache said the £250,000 for the independent review was a ‘vast sum of money’ and asked what it would achieve.

‘What a complete waste of money and time,’ he said.

Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller pointed out that the second option had been drafted by the committee led by Deputy Ferbrache and could have been drafted differently.

Many speakers warned against the States failing to open itself up to outside scrutiny.

‘We have to be very careful not to be seen to be marking our own homework,’ Deputy Tina Bury said. She also argued that no business would think of spending a £100m.on something and then not review how it went.

With some deputies having spoken of the Civil Contingencies Authority’s good performance during the crisis, Deputies Aidan Matthews and Adrian Gabriel both said this was not an argument for having no review, but instead a good opportunity to show the world the results of best practice.

This view got short shrift from Deputy Bob Murray, who poured scorn on the idea of what he characterised as an expensive PR campaign, and urged members to dismiss the ‘ludicrous’, more expensive option.

Deputies Chris Blin and Liam McKenna suggested a sufficient amount of reviewing had already been undertaken.

The former said Guernsey had already learned lessons from the first wave by the second one, while the latter drew attention to the extensive reviewing procedures already in place in all care home settings and at the hospitals.

The cheaper first option was approved by 24 votes to 11, with four members absent.