The Policy & Resources Committee issued the confirmation in response to a freedom of information request.
The States is looking to evict current tenants Belmiro and Manuela de Freitas, who have run the cafe for more than 20 years, after they refused to move out after they lost out on a controversial new tender for the site last year.
The case was originally due to go to court on 15 April, but it was postponed, and a new date for a hearing has now been pencilled in for September.
Former P&R member Deputy Mark Helyar said he did not believe the process should have commenced in the first place.
‘My primary concern is the use of delegated authority – which derives from the States as a political body – by public servants without adequate political oversight,’ he said.
‘The same issue as arose with the diving board at La Vallette.’
He added that he would like to see new mediation between the cafe owners and States Property Services but with a political representative involved.
‘This could be settled without further cost of the kind which is now being run up,’ he said.
‘And I would like to encourage our new P&R and the head of public service jointly to overhaul how delegated authorities are exercised across the whole States, so that there is public accountability for such decisions and their resultant cost.’
Deputy Helyar raised the matter in the States yesterday as new P&R president Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez took questions from members.
‘This sum represents almost three years of lost rent and the public revenue for those premises,’ he said, describing it as a ‘wasteful and contentious exercise of this Assembly’s delegated authority’.
He urged Deputy de Sausmarez and her committee to ‘take direct control of this worsening situation and bring it to a sensible, negotiated closure, as soon as possible’.
Deputy de Sausmarez said she could not comment on an ongoing legal case, but said she and her committee had been briefed.
The States Property Unit though said that a formal tender process for the cafe was properly run and the best bid selected.
'It is highly regrettable that, because of a refusal to quit the premises following the end of the lease, eviction proceedings have been required in order to action the outcome of that fair process.’
The money spent on lawyers has been accommodated from existing budgets and the committee admitted that more was likely to be spent.
P&R defended the use of private sector lawyers on the case as ‘standard practice’ as lawyers employed by the States were too busy on other issues.
‘This ensures that matters are handled efficiently and without delay.’
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