P&R decides not to go ahead with statement on ‘cover-up’

An order paper circulated late on Monday, which set out all items of business for the States meeting, stated that Policy & Resources president Lyndon Trott would make a statement.

Deputies were left surprised when this was pulled, which denied an opportunity they had been expecting to ask questions without notice for up to 15 minutes.

P&R, which has insisted that its advisers were not involved in a cover-up, told the Guernsey Press it had simply changed its mind about the need for a statement.

‘A request to make a statement was made on a provisional basis, but after further consideration the committee decided against making it,’ said Deputy Trott.

Several deputies have called for an investigation into why senior officials at Policy & Resources and Health & Social Care kept their committee members in the dark about a £30m. increase in the estimated cost of the project for months at the end of last year and start of this year.

In a separate item, Deputy Adrian Gabriel was allowed to ask an urgent question on the issue, but he and several members asking supplementary questions failed to elicit the information they were seeking.

Deputy Trott continued to back a review into the issue which has been commissioned by the head of the public service, Mark de Garis, and is being carried out by former States lawyer Martin Thornton.

The P&R president provided details about the review’s terms of reference and told the Assembly that it was expected to conclude next month, but he insisted it would be unreasonable to make other comments before the findings of the review were known.

Scrutiny president Yvonne Burford gave the strongest indication yet that her committee may be prepared to commission an independent inquiry when she asked Deputy Trott whether he would support such an approach. But Bailiff Sir Richard McMahon denied the question, saying it fell outside rules on supplementary questions.

P&R admitted last week that ‘a limited number’ of its senior officials knew about the £30m. fiasco in November last year and failed to tell their members until the middle of February this year.

It was already known that some former members of staff at Health & Social Care were aware of the 25% increase in estimated costs as far back as February last year, and that some current senior HSC officials knew by October, but kept it secret from their committee members until just before Christmas.

‘The number of staff involved was less than the number of fingers on my hand,’ said HSC president Al Brouard, providing more information than had been disclosed previously.

Deputy Brouard, who was facing questions after a separate statement on behalf of HSC, was pressed by Deputy Burford on why he did not share information about the rising costs with political colleagues on P&R for nearly two months, over a period when there were key States debates on public finances and capital projects.

‘When we knew as HSC [members], on 19 December, we were also aware that senior members of the civil service also knew, so they would feed back through their normal channels, and I’ve got nothing else I can add,’ said Deputy Brouard.

In response to a later question from Deputy Simon Fairclough, Deputy Brouard said it would have been premature to have spoken to members of P&R because staff were still investigating the accuracy of their initial findings about the £30m. estimated increase.