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Public Accounts Committee
Record of Meeting
Date: 15th June 2015
Present | Deputy A.D. Lewis , Chairman Deputy S.M. Wickenden, Vice-Chairman Deputy J.A. Martin Mr. G. Drinkwater Mr. R.J. Parker Mr. M.J. Robinson |
Apologies | Connétable C.H. Taylor |
Absent |
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In attendance | Mrs. K. McConnell, Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) Mr. I. Clarkson, Committee Officer |
Ref Back | Agenda matter | Action |
| A1. Records of Meetings The records of the meetings held on 11th May and 18th May 2015 were approved and signed. | Officer |
| A2. Conflicts of Interest No new conflicts of interest were declared. |
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512/1/1(5) | A3. Visit to National Assembly for Wales The Committee noted that arrangements were in hand for a delegation of the Committee to visit to the National Assembly for Wales on 23rd – 24th June 2015. It was confirmed that the Wales Public Accounts Committee had invited a delegation of the Northern Ireland Public Accounts Committee and the Committee to attend to discuss working practices. Arrangements would also be made for the delegation to observe a public and private meeting of the Wales Public Accounts Committee and to visit the Welsh Audit Office. The Committee noted that the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Mr. G. Drinkwater would attend the National Assembly for Wales and that they would be accompanied by the Committee's Officer. It was estimated that the total cost of the visit would be of the order of £1800, which would be drawn from the Chairmen's Committee budget as per the arrangements made for similar visits made by Scrutiny Panels earlier in 2015. The Officer was instructed to finalise arrangements for the visit. | Officer |
512/1/1(1) | A4. Work Programme The Committee considered a report concerning the status of its work programme for 2015 and beyond. There followed a discussion concerning Andium Homes Limited. Having recalled that the Committee had recently presented to the States its report on the management of planned and responsive maintenance undertaken by Andium Homes, the Chairman apprised the Committee of anecdotal evidence he had received concerning aspects of the shareholder relationship between the Treasury and Resources Department and Andium Homes. The Committee noted the position and recalled that the shareholder management function within the Treasury and Resources Department had been considered in the C&AG's report R.109/2014 (The States as Shareholder: Jersey Telecom'). The Committee noted the report and reaffirmed its intention to follow-up the C&AG's report R.109/2014 during 2015. |
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Item 4 18.05.15 512/1/1(6) | A5. Financial Management The Committee noted that it was still waiting to receive a final response from both the Chief Executive and the Treasurer of the States to the C&AG's report concerning financial management (R.38/2015 refers). It was reported that executive departments were prioritizing construction of the draft Medium Term Financial Plan 2016-2019 and that they were reportedly finding it difficult to find time to complete other tasks. The reported desire to obtain ministerial input regarding the content of the responses to R.38/2015 was understood to be a further reason for the ongoing delay. The Committee recalled that it had been waiting in excess of 10 weeks for a formal response to the C&AG's report. It was considered potentially anomalous that scheduled financial planning activity should be conducted by executive departments in a manner that rendered them unable to carry out other core duties. The Committee further recalled having experienced delays in receiving evidence in respect of the Public Sector Reform programme review and in respect of the response to recommendation 1 of the internal audit report PAC.3/2014, which was over 3 months overdue. They recommended that the Chairman raise with the Chairmen's Committee the matter of the above delays in early course. | Officer |
Item 5 18.05.15 512/1/1(6) | A6. Private Patients Income The Committee noted the response of the Health and Social Services Department to the C&AG's report on private patient income (R.51/2015 refers). The Committee was pleased to note that the department had accepted the recommendations in full and had outlined what appeared to be a reasonable programme of work with proportionate timescales for |
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| implementation. The Committee agreed that the Chairman should write to the Chief Officer, Health and Social Services Department and request additional information by 22nd September regarding the project plans to take the workstreams forward, the budgetary approvals required to fund those workstreams and confirmation of the completion dates being targeted for each project. | Chair / Officer |
Item 6 18.05.15 512/27 | A7. Public Sector Reform The Committee noted that following questions asked by the Committee's Officer regarding documents supplied to the Committee following a request for evidence submitted to that department on 14th April 2015, the Chief Minister's Department had asserted that the full content of the supplied documents remained confidential. Affected documentation included certain Minutes of, and certain related reports submitted to, the Council of Ministers during the period 2012 – 2014. The Committee had nevertheless reportedly been given permission to quote during a public hearing any of the text within the documentation supplied, save for that which related directly to the workforce modernization workstreams. The Committee recalled that each of the documents supplied by the Chief Minister's Department had been marked either as confidential on the sole basis of exemption 3.2.1(a)(xiv) of the now obsolete Code of Practice on Public Access to Official information (commonly cited as policy in the course of development'), or had simply been marked as confidential but without any specific exemption having been cited. None of the documents supplied had been re-evaluated in accordance with the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. The Committee considered that the stance adopted by the Chief Minister's Department was anomalous and somewhat counter-intuitive and had put the Committee in a difficult position. It agreed that the Chairman might wish to raise the matter during the next scheduled meeting of the Chairmen's Committee. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Committee agreed to make every effort to comply with the restrictions applied by the Chief Minister's Department. The Committee held a public hearing with the following witnesses in attendance – Chief Executive, States of Jersey Chief Officer, Environment Department Director of Human Resources, Chief Minister's Department Business Change Director, Chief Minister's Department The Committee resolved to review transcripts of the hearing during the course of its next scheduled meeting. The Comptroller and Auditor General was not present for this item. | Chair / Officer Officer |
Item 7 18.05.15 | A8. Financial Directions The Committee considered transcripts of the 2 public hearings held on |
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512/25 | 18th May 2015 and reached a series of provisional conclusions regarding the content of its final report. The Officer was instructed to prepare a draft report for the Committee's consideration and to circulate the draft prior to the Committee's next scheduled meeting. | PAC/ Officer |
Item 8 18.05.15 512/1/1(1) | A9. Comptroller and Auditor General – Work Programme The Committee –
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Signed Date: ..
Chairman Panel