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States Greffe: Scrutiny
Senator John Le Fondré Chief Minister
19-21 Broad Street
St Helier
JE2 3RR
28 June 2019 Dear Chief Minister
One Gov Review – Response to Request for Information
Thank you for the information provided to the Panel in response to our request on 31st May 2019.
I note that, in your response, you have drawn a distinction between an overall One Gov project, and One Government being a number of interrelated modernisation programmes, and used this as a basis to omit the requested information relating to costings (contained within the first three points of my original letter – attached).
It is of great concern to this Panel that the Chief Minister, the Council of Ministers and the Chief Executive (CEO) have begun to use this rhetoric in an attempt to distract Scrutiny, Members and the general public from the fact that One Gov has been, and remains, a large-scale change management project.
This fact is evidenced by the existence of this Review Panel, the leadership and oversight of the modernisation of the public sector being a key responsibility of the CEO (i.e. the CEO is the project manager), and the history and structure of the programme of work. A collection of interrelated modernisation programmes, as you have described it, is indeed a project and should be managed and described as such in the interest of transparency and accountability.
The transition team started their work in September 2017, and have had ample time to identify work streams and progress them with initial funding set aside for their work to begin. One of the key recommendations of the C&AG, backed up by the initial findings of the transition team, was that financial management needed to be improved.
The Panel finds it hard to believe that the CEO has not taken this opportunity to display best practice financial management for such a large project and programme of work. We would also expect that the Council of Ministers and the Chief Minister would hold the CEO to account.
There should have been an initial assessment of the changes that are underway and the cost of implementing them at an overarching project level. If these figures are not available, the Government must hold the CEO to account and demand answers.
We look forward to working with you and receiving a more detailed and considered response to our request for budget information relating to the One Gov project and we trust that oversight of this programme of work will henceforth be referred to and managed under project management principles.
Yours sincerely
Connétable Karen Shenton-Stone Chair, One Gov Review Panel