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Public Accounts Committee
Record of Meeting
Date: 14th May 2012 Meeting No: 5
Present | Deputy T. Vallois, Chairman Senator S. C. Ferguson, Deputy R. Rondel Mr A. Fearn Mr S. Haigh |
Apologies | Mr C. Evans Mr. C. Swinson O.B.E. – Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) |
Absent | Deputy S. Pitman |
In attendance | Mr M. Robbins, Scrutiny Officer |
Ref Back | Agenda matter | Action |
| 1. Records of Meetings The Committee approved the record of its meetings of 19th March 2012 and 16th April 2012. | MR |
| 2. Conflict of Interest No conflict of interest was declared relating to any matter on the agenda. |
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Item 3 16.04.12 512/1(40) | 3. Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2005 The Committee noted that no response had been received from the Treasurer of the States to the letter sent on 18th April 2012. It was agreed that the Committee could not proceed without the requested information and that the failure of the Treasury to supply the required information was unacceptable. The information requested should have been at hand and the Committee could see no reason for it being withheld. In addition to the requested information, it was now essential that the Committee also obtained the date that the amendments would be lodged au Greffe'. The information was to be obtained. | MR |
| 4. Suspension of States Employees. The Chairman had received an email from a member of the public who raised concerns about the cost to the Island of suspensions of States employees. The Chairman had met with the Human Resources Director for a briefing and it was clear that although the area was being improved by the current Human Resources Department, more needed to be done. This could not be achieved unless the Human Resources Department received significant upgrading to make it fit for purpose' in the States today. Documentation supplied to the Chairman was to be circulated to the Committee after which consideration could be given as to the appropriate way forward. | MR |
Item 5 16.04.12 512/1(1) | 5. Recruitment of non-elected members The Committee noted that the Chairman of the Appointments Commission had been contacted and was appointing a Commissioner to assist the Committee with the recruitment process. The advertisement for the positions was to be published in the Jersey Evening Post on Wednesday 17th May 2012. The closing date for applications was the 31st May 2012, with interviews being held on 18th June 2012. | MR |
Item 6 16.04.12 512/14 | 6. Review into the Bus Contract. The response from Transport and Technical Services had been received and circulated to the Committee. It revealed that most of the recommendations within the Comptroller and Auditor General's report Management of the Bus Contracts' had been accepted and were subject of action. The report also contained recommendations relating to the Central Procurement Department. A request for information about the response to those recommendations had been sent to the Central Procurement Team. The reply had been received immediately prior to the Committee meeting and was circulated to members. It was agreed that the recommendations had been dealt with by the departments and that the Committee was in a position to complete the review. It was further agreed that the Chairman was to have discretion on the format of the final document but that consideration was to be given to submitting a report in the form of Comments to the States'. It was noted that there were areas of the review which could have been subject to further investigation but that were outside the remit of the Committee. The Chairman was to liaise with the Chairman of the Environment Scrutiny Panel to advise him of these areas of the review which fell into the remit of his Panel. The draft document was to be circulated to the Committee for consideration and approval. | TV/MR TV/MR MR |
Item 7 16.04.12 512/15 | 7. Compromise Agreements: Review of the C&AG Reports Consideration was given to the value of the hearings held on 16th April and 8th May 2012. The Committee considered that the questioning had provided the evidence needed to draft the report and thanked the Comptroller and Auditor General in his absence for the advice he supplied. It was also noted that the subject had caused significant interest in the media. Documents supplied by the Human Resources Director suggested that in his opinion, had the Island had modern Human Resources systems and processes, along with the resources over the last few years, many of the problems which have occurred in connection with compromise agreements should not have happened. Much of the information he supplied supported the evidence previously obtained and was to be included in the report. However, it was recognised that Human Resources were currently bidding for significant increases in establishment in order to modernise the department and care was required to ensure the impartiality of the submission. It was noted that the private documentation, promised to the Committee by the Minister for Treasury and Resources at the hearing on 16th April |
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| 2012, had not been supplied. It had been chased by the Officer and an email from the Minister on 8th May 2012 had promised the documentation for later that day but it had not been received. The Committee received documents relating to principles of remuneration, executive contracts and severance in the private sector, which was considered to be of possible assistance in supporting elements of the report. These documents were to be electronically circulated to the Committee. The Chairman was to work with the officer on producing a draft report for consideration of the Committee. | TV / MR |
| 8. Future Meetings The Committee agreed that the next meeting was to be at 12.30 pm on Monday 11th June 2012 in the Blampied Room of the States Buildings. | MR |