What action has been taken to discover the source of the alleged leaked information from the Waterfront Enterprise board regarding the tendering process for the Island Site

1240/5(1849)

QUESTION TO BE ASKED OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE ON TUESDAY, 29th APRIL 2003 BY SENATOR E.P. VIBERT

Question

1. W ould the President informmembers what action the Committee hastaken to discoverthe source of alleged leaked information from the Waterfront Enterprise Board,(WEB), to Dandara Jersey Limited regarding the tendering process for the proposed Island site, as alleged by WEB's lawyers in correspondence with Dandara's lawyers dated 28th February 2003,andwhichwas circulated to States memberslastmonth,and, if applicable, the outcomeofthese enquiries, orifnotyet pursued, the reasons for thedelay?
2. W ould the Presidentagree that the alleged leakof information is a very serious matter and undermines public confidence in the tendering process itself given that any such process,by its nature, is confidential?

Answer

1. A s thematterscontained within the correspondence exchangedbetweentheWaterfrontEnterprise Board Ltd.'s and Dandara's lawyers may yet be the subject of legal proceedings between those two companies, the Policy and ResourcesCommittee has notundertakenany action, nor will it take any such action, while the possibility of litigation remains, todiscoverwhether there has been a leak of information or, if it has, its source.

T h i s is in any case a matter for the directors of the Board of WEB. Even without the possibility of

litigation occurring, and if it was convinced beyond doubt that such a leak had occurred and that an investigation into finding its source would prove beneficial, the Committee does not have any authority to take such direct action itself, but could only direct the Waterfront Enterprise Board Directors themselves to take appropriate action.

2. I w ould,ofcourse, wholeheartedly agree with the Deputy that the leaking of any confidential information is a very serious matter indeed andonewhichcould easily and seriously underminepublicconfidence.In this particular case I cannotsay whether a leak has orhasnot occurred.

H o w  ever, what I can say is that there does seem to me to be, of late, more circumstantial evidence of the

careless, or perhaps deliberate, leakage of confidential information from a number of Committees and other States bodies. This, in my view, could well lead to more restrictions, rather than less, being imposed on such information in the future, which works against moves to make government more transparent and accountable. I deplore all such leaks as being an undermining feature of our present way of working. In my view we need to work together in trust and confidence in order to serve our community properly. This recent trend of breaking confidences, on many occasions only to score political points or to embarrass colleagues, serves no good at all and is damaging to the public interest.