Why don’t we listen to our industry? asks Deputy Camp

Economic Development is putting £350,000 into a consultants’ investigation costing nearly £560,000 to assess growth options for the industry.

It has emerged that president Sasha Kazantseva-Miller and members Andrew Niles and Rhona Humphreys, both senior figures in the local industry, supported the project, but Haley Camp, another senior industry leader, and Lee Van Katwyk opposed it.

Deputy Camp, a former executive chair of the Guernsey Investment and Funds Association, said she had questioned in committee what real value for money the consultants’ work would actually represent.

‘The likeliest outcomes are either things we already know or things we could have established ourselves by looking at what other jurisdictions are doing to improve their competitiveness – something the industry routinely does to maintain its position,’ she said.

‘With the Guernsey Financial Services Commission and Guernsey Finance part-funding the review, there is also a potential conflict of interest not present in earlier, government-driven processes.

‘That in itself is a new and important dimension which should be acknowledged.’

She said that an inevitable and pivotal recommendation from the work must be that government needs to finally use the power granted to it under the 1987 Financial Services Law to set policy.

‘I ran [for election] on this very point, because I’ve believed for years that it is not the regulator’s role to determine the island’s commercial and risk appetite,’ she said.

‘Other jurisdictions set policy at government level as a matter of course, so why would Guernsey be any different?’

However, Deputy Camp said she would be working constructively with the committee during the information-gathering phase of the project.

‘Whatever my reservations about how we got here, I want to make sure the solutions this island needs, do come out of this work,’ she said.

‘What has become increasingly clear is that no matter how many times industry or others tell government what the challenges are and how to solve them, it doesn’t seem to count as credible unless a third party says it and takes a shedload of cash out of our economy in the process.’

Deputy Van Katwyk said that he was happy to publicly disclose his voting record.

‘My primary reasoning was its high price tag in the face of our government’s spending deficit and a cost-of-living crisis,’ he said.

‘While I was not convinced enough to vote for funding the consultancy firm, I am determined to work with the committee and our stakeholders to ensure a positive outcome for Guernsey’s future.’

Oliver Wyman Ltd is producing a confidential technical report for politicians and officials, and a public report for widespread publication.

The appointment of the UK consultants had been heavily criticised by Deputy David Goy, who questioned the value for money of the report and said he wanted the public to see line-by-line what they were buying.

Economic Development is funding 62.5% of the cost of the work, with the GFSC paying 25% and Guernsey Finance the remaining 12.5%.