Covid spending must be key part of review
IT MAY have taken States members a while to agree, but this week islanders should see published the intent behind a review of how the government handled the Covid pandemic over the past two years.
Self-evidently, the greatest peacetime challenge faced by the island needs to be examined to answer how well the island did and what could be done better in the future.
It is understood that the imminent States report may well offer deputies a choice between an in-house review and something closer to the fully independent option Jersey has pursued, which could cost its government up to half a million pounds. Hopefully, with a majority of members having pushed for the review, they will proceed and plump for the cheaper version. We can learn lessons from history, even recent history. But it is arguable that those who need to learn the lessons don’t need to pay a fortune to discover what they might have done better.
Jersey’s terms of reference aim to provide evidence-based recommendations for the future, identify lessons learned and areas for improvement to inform future strategies. It is also possible, even likely, that Jersey may benchmark themselves against Guernsey – offering insight to the Guernsey authorities for free.
Although there are pockets of opposition locally – quite a bit of it from deputies themselves – States members will know that islanders largely backed the way the States handled matters on the health risks of Covid, though one suspects a portion of our community will never be happy about that, and the financial implications to businesses and, by extension, to furloughed islanders.
Though focus may fall on the decisions of the Civil Contingencies Authority and health matters, the financial cost of Covid to the exchequer was an unprecedented intervention and does demand equal consideration in any review.
Millions of taxpayer funds – some £65m. as at September 2021 and almost certainly higher now – were spent propping up the economy. Was the scheme set up correctly? Was the money well spent? Did it go to the right areas and businesses? Was the process efficient?
When considering the big issues of the pandemic, the value of those pounds in helping the island stay afloat is as critical as the Civil Contingencies Authority’s lockdown judgements.