Concerns raised over St Peter Port 'missing' accounts
St Peter Port may have levied rates illegally for the past three years, it was suggested at the parish meeting.
The concern surrounded the failure of the parish to publish detailed and audited accounts for 2020-2023, but it still attended the Royal Court where it was given approval for its suggested rates.
During a discussion of the situation, parishioner Ray Le Poidevin wondered if, since the accounts were not complete and audited, the parish was able to request the rate changes under the parochial taxation law?
Nobody in the room or on the panel was able to answer, but senior constable Diane Mitchell said this would be investigated and the results passed on to parishioners, either at the next public meeting or online through the parish Facebook page or website.
But there was no suggestion that the parish had failed to present any figures to the courts, she said.
‘There was a set of accounts, but they were not necessarily accurate,’ she told the meeting.
Earlier in the evening parishioners approved the appointment of DNA as the parish’s accountants and Lince Salisbury as auditors. As well as working on this year’s books, the companies were also aiming to finalise and audit backdated accounts that were never formally filed.
DNA’s Diane De Garis said that when she came to examine the accounts from 2020-23 they were ‘quite messy’. The company had set out to prove everything it could.
Drafts of the accounts were discussed, during which there was a call for an inquiry into what had happened and for someone to be culpable.
This was countered by a parishioner saying that looking back was not the answer and efforts were needed to ensure the same situation did not happen again.
Vice-dean Mary McDermott said she and others had repeatedly asked for more details of the accounts over the years, but had been rebuffed every time. It was only after Mrs Mitchell took up office that she and other douzeniers had been given access.
With two candidates for a vacant constable’s position and eight for six seats in the douzaine, the meeting approved a deferred election for Wednesday 20 November.
