Mr Leijser lost his job just before Christmas, when his contract was not renewed, but the circumstances surrounding his departure caused him to submit a complaint to the Office of the Data Protection Authority (ODPA) and he also filed a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR).
He believed Alderney’s Policy & Finance Committee had wrongly concealed its discussions which led to his dismissal at the end of a probationary period despite three favourable quarterly assessments and a recommendation that he should be confirmed in the job.
P&F demanded an extended deadline which ended at midnight on 8 April and then, two hours before the deadline, produced a heavily redacted document which shed no light on the discussions and omitted the minutes or a recording of the meeting as Mr Leijser had expected.
That meeting, on 16 December 2024, led to a code of conduct complaint against the president of the States of Alderney, William Tate, which was submitted by then States member Bruce Woodhead.
Mr Woodhead alleged that Mr Tate had launched into a lengthy outburst against Mr Leijser and claimed that had influenced the committee against the chief executive. The complaint was dismissed by the States’ vice-president Steve Roberts.
Mr Tate and States member Alex Snowdon were singled out in the data protection complaint because they were known to have been active in communications before and during the P&F meeting.
None of these communications have been supplied to Mr Leijser.
‘The news of my exit from the States was leaked before the decision had even been lawfully validated or indeed even communicated to me personally,’ said Mr Leijser from his new home in Edinburgh, where he now works for a charity assisting young people with mental and physical disabilities.
‘I found this not only very humiliating but abhorrent behaviour from a States committee that is as leaky as a sinking ship. This behaviour demonstrates such poor governance and supports my view that, as is, Alderney has become ungovernable.’
Mr Leijser has now submitted a second DSAR because he believes the States of Alderney is ‘hiding or deleting relevant data’ and has asked the ODPA to insist that the States send him unredacted minutes, recordings, a letter to the Lt-Governor, emails and Teams messages.
Mr Leijser said the States had denied all of his allegations and failed to accept any liability over the circumstances surrounding the ending of his employment.
The Guernsey Press approached Alderney States for a comment but received no response.
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