States members voted unanimously to appoint Elizabeth Maurice, who has been acting as CEO since her predecessor, Theo Leijser, was dismissed by the States at the end of December 2024 in controversial circumstances.
Despite the backing of all 10 members, some States members questioned why Mrs Maurice had been the only candidate considered and why a full recruitment process had not been undertaken.
Veronica Taylor said she did not challenge the suitability of Mrs Maurice for the role.
‘The candidate is a well-respected professional who has most certainly stepped up on several occasions to steady this ship as previous chief executives have left, the most recent of whom left in what appeared to be in a rather abrupt and unexpected way,’ she said.
‘To the world outside of the Island Hall this is a “behind closed doors” appointment.
‘I have made colleagues aware of another candidate in our community who indicated they were waiting to apply, and I am concerned that this process is being managed to prevent others from applying.’
The circumstances of Mr Leijser’s dismissal led to a code of conduct complaint against the president of the States of Alderney, William Tate, which was submitted by former States member Bruce Woodhead, who also had resigned over the incident.
Commenting on the process that led to Mrs Maurice’s appointment, Mr Tate said that he had been involved in the appointment and the leaving of the three previous chief executives.
‘We followed exactly the approach that Mrs Taylor would have had us do today and on each occasion, those appointments failed, and we had to go through the process again,’ he said.
‘As Einstein said, repeating the same thing and expecting a different result, is insanity.’
Policy & Finance Committee chairman Bill Abel, who proposed Mrs Maurice’s appointment, said the States ‘were not trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes’.
‘The majority of the members were supportive of looking at the candidate we had in hand,’ he said.
‘So for us to go out advertising in the public domain does not reflect good integrity or honesty from this committee.’
As treasurer, Mrs Maurice was technically employed by Guernsey’s civil service and will initially take on the role as chief executive on a secondment basis.
This will be reviewed in the light of any recommendations from the newly formed Bailiwick Commission with Guernsey and Sark.
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