The island’s Comptroller and Auditor General has criticised the government for not carrying out any formal risk assessment when making that decision, and that there was no documented review of the risks or benefits of awarding a 20-year contract to DFDS.
The report on transport resilience revisits the procurement process to secure a new ferry provider, which began as a pan-island tender in May last year but collapsed in October, when Guernsey revealed that it had decided to appoint Brittany Ferries – Condor Ferries’ majority owner – as its preferred bidder.
DFDS won the subsequent Jersey-only tender and signed a 20-year contract to provide passenger and freight services to the UK and France, which began at the end of March.
The government’s decision to go for 20 years, rather than 15 in the joint tender, had no formal assessment of its impact, benefits and risks being documented, the report found.
It said that the longer contract was requested by the two competing operators – Brittany Ferries and DFDS.
Both said that the investment they would need to make in their fleets, with a smaller market than the joint tender, would need a longer contract period.
And Comptroller and A-G Lynn Pamment also noted that the agreement did not include an inter-island ferry service.
‘While this was understood, there is no documented impact assessment against risk appetite to underpin this decision,’ she said.
‘Instead, the significant reduction in inter-island provision was accepted in the short term without the “value added” being fully evaluated.’
For example, the impact on the tourist experience and for visitors looking for a pan-Channel Islands holiday was not explored and the conclusions factored in as part of the decision to exclude inter-island requirements.
Brittany Ferries has operated a once-weekly round trip between the islands, which has been topped up by Islands Unlimited running a foot passenger service six days a week.
DFDS belatedly launched an inter-island service on a Monday and then cancelled several sailing dates.
There will be no inter-island ferry today after Brittany cancelled Voyager sailings for today because of forecast strong winds.
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