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When I pointed out last week that the Treasury Minister’s new
initiatives to centralise powers under his control looked like a
dangerous bid to create one-person government, I did not expect the head
of the Corporate Affairs Scrutiny Panel, Senator Sarah Ferguson, the
person charged with holding him to account, to rush to his defence. But
in the weird world that passes for politics in Jersey, I suppose I
should not have been surprised. After all they share very similar
political views on most subjects apart from climate change.
I was not surprised in the least however by the loose way in which she
marshalled the work of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in
support. After all her election platform was almost entirely based on a
misrepresentation of the CAG’s report into the potential for £35 million
of further budget cuts. He said they were extremely difficult and many
would result in service Business Plan cuts surely indicate who was right
Worse still in her defence of Senator Ozouf was her use of selective
quoting from the CAG: “… the lack of discipline in financial recording
has assisted departments in obscuring cost profiles and this has been
regarded by some as convenient.” The fact is that the past master of
“convenient lack of discipline” is none other than Senator Ozouf
himself, in his time in charge of Economic Development. He it was who
restructured the ED budget under large generic titles such as
“Promotion” and “Marketing” to hide subsidies of the order of £1m to
prop up airline routes, many of which have now ceased.
That policy may have been right or wrong. Who knows? Whatever it was, it
was not transparent, and it certainly lacked accountability.
To obscure costs in the larger budgets of Health and of Education is one
thing; to do so in the ED budget of only £14 m requires rare talent and
dedication. Senator Ozouf managed it. Apparently, the poacher has now
turned gamekeeper, and according to Senator Ferguson we should now place
our trust in him. I hope she will understand if I withhold mine.
Geoff Southern, La Rochelle, St Helier
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