Deputies clip senior committee's wings on major building projects

Thursday 16 February 2023

Policy & Resources will be stripped of power to approve spending on large capital projects.

States members backed an amendment by Deputy Yvonne Burford which caps their delegated authority at £5m, down from what was effectively £568m, the spending lid that was put on the overall capital portfolio this term.

Deputy Burford said that when the States approved that in July 2021, P&R had argued having the power to spend over half a billion pounds on a long list of projects without recourse to the Assembly would yield benefits that outweighed the lack of scrutiny and accountability that came with that move. 

“P&R claim delegated authority would speed up the pace of capital projects, saying it will deliver better public value and momentum in delivery,” she said.

“18 months on I'm not sure where the evidence for that is.”

There had not been any sign of a new approach to reporting back on its use of delegated authority to ensure transparency, she said.

So far this term the Committee had opened votes of £170m, of which £70m had been paid out.

“Do members of this Assembly who are ultimately responsible for this money notwithstanding the delegated authority know what projects it has been spent on? In any case, such an approach, however reported upon, would be after the events.”

If the money was not spent this term, the delegated authority would carry over to a new P&R committee next term.

“The main argument P&R advanced for this unprecedented change was that unlimited delegated authority would prevent tenders from seeing capital costs. Of course, we have had the Alderney policy letter with a capital cost of £24.1m, but I'm told that only came forward because of the substantial change in ambition of that project.”

The Assembly, having approved a project, has no idea what it would ultimately cost, she said.

“How is that defensible? A further point that was not explored at the time was that not only does this authority allow P&R to spend on projects, but it also allows them not to spend on projects. In other words to stop a project going forward that the Assembly under the old rules could have directed be implemented. This is a point that just can't be overemphasised and it's another dilution of the responsibility and authority of this Assembly.”

She said there was no evidence from P&R that a figure in a policy letter was what a tender comes in at.

“Financially matters have got worse since 2021 and I believe that more than ever, the Assembly needs to be providing the scrutiny that members were elected to exercise.”

She stressed it was not personal, but that much power should not be in the hands of one committee.

Deputy Peter Roffey said he had locked horns with P&R this term.

Pictured: Deputy Peter Roffey.

“I think they've just been too centralised and taking too much power for themselves and thinking that they are the government of Guernsey. I think that was almost exemplified by saying that once we pass the GWP, which is a big sprawling thing, all other capital projects, however expensive they are, will be a matter for them to determine.”

From his experience, tenders do not come back at what is put in the public domain, they are higher or lower depending on how much work is about.

“It has far more to do with how sharp the pencils are of the various firms at the time and how much they need to work.”

Deputy Simon Vermeuluen, however, was not convinced that P&R should be stripped of the delegated authority.

“People are saying it's not a matter of trust. Well, P&R are not daft and they know they only have to make a mistake once and that's it, that delegated authority will be gone. So if you could prove that there are three cases where they've messed up by using that delegated authority, I think I might be encouraged to vote for it, but as things stand I can trust P&R,” he said. 

The amendment was seconded by Deputy Lyndon Trott.

It will not impact any projects where capital votes have already been opened.

How they voted:

For: Yvonne Burford, Tina Bury, Andy Cameron, David De Lisle, Lindsay De Sausmarez, Simon Fairclough, Steve Falla, Adrian Gabriel, John Gollop, Neil Inder, Sasha Kazanteva-Miller, Chris Le Tissier, Jonathan Le Tocq, Marc Leadbeater, Aidan Matthews, Liam McKenna, Lester Queripel, Peter Roffey, Heidi Soulsby, Gavin St Pier, Andrew Taylor, Lyndon Trott. 22

Against: Sue Aldwell, Chris Blin, Al Brouard, Andrea Dudley-Owen, John Dyke, Peter Ferbrache, Sam Haskins, Mark Helyar, David Mahoney, Carl Meerveld, Nick Moakes, Victoria Oliver, Robert Prow, Steve Roberts, Alexander Snowdon, Simon Vermeulen. 16

Abstained: Bob Murray.

Absent: Charles Parkinson.