Jersey minister blames ‘the process’ for impasse over ferry tender decision

The island’s government hopes to announce its preferred operator in the first week of December.

Sustainable Economic Development minister Kirsten Morel faced questioning yesterday from the island’s Economic & International Affairs Panel chaired by Deputy Montfort Tadier.

The session, which lasted just over an hour, went over much familiar ground for those who have followed the proceedings since Guernsey announced its preferred choice at the end of last month.

Among the issues raised was how DFDS came to be eliminated from the process by Jersey after its bid had failed on a technical legal point, while Condor/Brittany Ferries bid failed on other points.

Deputy Morel said he disputed the ‘mandatory fail’ for DFDS.

He blamed ‘the process’ for much of the issues that had led to the current impasse and he criticised it for what he said was a lack of human input.

He said that he had wanted to put ‘human reasoning into the process’.

Once it was noted that Guernsey had scored the process differently, there should have been a meeting between the senior responsible officer in both islands to discuss discrepancies, he added.

That was ‘denied by Guernsey’ and when Jersey asked for a meeting at political level, they were told there was ‘no room for discussion’.

‘We were not given that opportunity to talk to Guernsey politicians – we were told “we’re not interested, we will not be changing our minds”.’

It would have been easy to follow Guernsey’s lead, said Deputy Morel, but a ‘really important decision’ was made not to do this. He stressed that financial viability would be a key part of the new Jersey-only tender process.

A third party would be analysing the tender bids due in this week.

Some of the minimum requirements of the service were different to the original tender due to it being for a Jersey-only operation.

‘I just want the best ferry service for Jersey,’ he said.

Deputy Morel said he was unable to say how damaging the delay in making a decision had been. But there was no decision yet on what contingency measures would be necessary from January to March should Condor/Brittany Ferries lose the bid and decide to pull out.

So far this year, £3m. had already been spent on contingency measures that had not been required.

Deputy Morel said he continued to work with other ministers and senior officers.

‘I am constantly checking that I am seeing this right,’ he said.

‘This is not me in a vacuum. At the end of the day when it comes to a 15-year ferry contract, I think we have to be very careful how we award it and who we award it to.’