Guernsey Press

Experiment has not lived up to billing

IT IS EASILY forgotten as the years roll by that this States Assembly is an experiment.

Published

It is four years since deputies approved the States Review Committee’s third policy letter and set the seal on a radical transformation of government.

Out went the Policy Council gathering of 10 departmental ministers, in came a five-person Policy & Resources team in a bid to tie the purse strings to policy making.

Out went 15% of deputies, bringing the number down to 38, and ministers became humble committee presidents.

Finally, the number of principal committees was reduced to just six, supported by a set of boards, authorities and commissions.

Some grand promises were made at the time.

It would be a less bureaucratic way of implementing policy changes and would strengthen the committees’ ownership of policies they propose while making senior civil servants more accountable to the committees they serve.

It is fair to say that the new system has not lived up to its billing.

The last three years have not brought a more decisive Assembly, instead decision-making has often been painfully slow.

A tension has grown between Policy & Resources and the principal committees with the latter often accusing the former of exceeding its authority by withholding revenue for staff and projects.

From the start, Scrutiny Management, a key part of the original proposals, has been frustrated by its lack of genuine authority to hold committees to account. Without an effective check on committee actions the States has often looked unbalanced and lacking in transparency.

The mandates of the senior committees and boards continue to confuse. This week Policy & Resources will attempt to tidy up some of the loose ends but the public remains nonplussed about where, for example, the powers of Environment & Infrastructure end and those of the Development & Planning Authority begin.

And issues that span the authority of several committees, such as sea and air travel, consistently frustrate.

Some deputies will argue that these are teething problems that can be sorted in the second term. The likelihood is that we face four more years of inertia.