BREAKING: Civil servants sacked after withholding Hospital price increases from deputies

Wednesday 20 March 2024

Several civil servants are 'no longer employed' by the States as revealed in a bombshell Hospital Modernisation Programme update.

The President of Health and Social Care, Deputy Al Brouard, told the Assembly that an uplift in costs - of close to £30million - in the second phase of the Project were known by a small number of civil servants as early as February 2023.

This information was not shared with the Committee of Health and Social Care, or senior civil servants. 

Deputy Brouard told States members that those who were aware of the figures and didn't disclose them are no longer employed by the States of Guernsey.

It was revealed during questioning that the project management board overseeing both phases didn't have a political member sitting in.

Deputy Sasha Kazantseva-Miller said this incident is a "fundamental failure of governance for such a significant project" citing a briefing in October 2023 where civil servants said that a five year delay would add £25milliion to the project. 

She said this was "fundamentally misleading" to deputies, continuing that officers were six-years off the mark of where costs could spiral to.

Deputy Brouard maintained that his Committee simply had no idea of the hike in prices and said his Committee was let down by so-called professional civil servants. 

A review is now going to be undertaken to see if costs can be kept within the original £120million budget.

More to come...