Alderney spend dents confidence

But the way Alderney has operated in getting to that point raises some fundamental questions about its relationship with Guernsey at a time when financial discipline and cultural change are fundamental.

Its £450,000 overrun was declared in a letter to a shocked P&R at the end of last month. Islanders are entitled to ask where the oversight has been both from Alderney’s perspective and from Guernsey’s.

There is little chance of any accountability. Proportionately, this is the same as Health spending £30m. too much – if that happened, the States would swiftly vote through a vote of no confidence. It, and therefore the wider public here, has no such recourse given that the decision makers are accountable to a different political body.

Alderney has been told to dip into its gambling money to cover the bill, money it is usually allowed to spend on capital projects, having wanted it covered from Budget Reserve.

A review of the financial relationship between the two islands has put in train changes that will give Alderney more power to raise money through property tax and fuel duty – something that gives its government more flexibility but also more responsibility to islanders there. This move is meant to cut its cash budget from £1.8m. to £330,000 a year, while Guernsey is still picking up the tab for the transferred services such as the airport.

The question of what happens to the £2m. in gambling surplus has been pushed down the road until 2020 after which point, unless a new arrangement is put in place, the money will go into the wider Bailiwick pot again.

Alderney also has a potential new source of income if an agreement is finalised on the Fab cable link. That could bring in some £600,000 a year which Guernsey could see as a means of reducing the subsidy further. Or it could be used to pay for specific identified needs, like subsidising air links.

Plenty remains to be resolved financially between the islands. While the trend has been for more autonomy, an overspend of this proportion dents confidence for the public in both islands that Alderney States has the right systems in place.