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The Annual Accounts of the Public Trustee could be debated publicly in a couple of weeks - which might raise questions for some people about who is it, what do they do, and why is it costing us millions of pounds.
Deputies Gavin St Pier and Adrian Gabriel are the ones responsible for bringing this issue into the spotlight.
They've lodged a 'Motion to Debate' the financial document, which has been lodged as an 'Appendix Report' for the States Meeting on 11 December.
While Appendix Reports are not usually debated, and are effectively 'nodded through', that might not be the case this year though.
This isn't the first time Deputy St Pier has tried to raise the profile of the work of the Public Trustee, having previously asked questions about specific aspects of the office's work and the amount it costs.
The current Public Trustee is Luiz Gonzalez, a lawyer who qualified in 1985.
Mr Gonzalez has worked in a variety of jurisdictions, including Guernsey since 1999. He was a Director at Investec and Rothschild Trust, and is a past committee member of the Guernsey Association of Trustees, which he joined in 2001.
Pictured: The Public Trustee is a civil servant, from the legal profession.
Mr Gonzalez was assisting the office of the Public Trustee on operational matters from December 2017 before being appointed in May 2018 for an initial period of five years. He remains in post today.
He was appointed to replace the former incumbent, Catherine Rowe who left the post in November 2017 following the Ferbrache and Farrell scandal.
A Public Trustee is an office established pursuant to national statute, to act as a trustee, usually when a sum is required to be deposited as security by legislation, if courts remove another trustee, or for estates if either no executor is named by will or the testator elects to name the public trustee (Wikipedia).
In Guernsey, the Public Trustee is a civil service post and any legal costs and liabilities incurred are funded by the States. Money that is recovered from trust structures within the responsibility of the Public Trustee are repayable to the States.
The postholder works at St James' Chambers, but is employed through the Committee for Economic Development.
The function and powers of the Public Trustee are governed by legislation.
Deputy St Pier said he and Deputy Gabriel have lodged their Motion to Debate the Public Trustee's Annual Accounts because of concerns over a lack of progress with a review and reform of the Office of the Public Trustee.
They said this is coupled with the increasing sums of public money being committed to the work of the Public Trustee.
Pictured: Deputies Gavin St Pier and Adrian Gabriel.
“The most significant issue being managed by the Public Trustee has been running for a number of years now," the pair said. "£5.9m of public funds have been committed up to the end of 2023 and almost certainly more during 2024. With this ever increasing exposure for taxpayers there is significant uncertainty about the likelihood of a full recovery of public funds from the trust structures being managed.
“Economic Development has previously committed to review and reform of the Office of Public Trustee but no progress has been reported publicly to date.
“A debate will provide an opportunity to better understand the prospects of recovering the public funds at risk and to receive an update on what progress, if any, has been made in the review and reform of the Public Trustee function.”
The work Deputies St Pier and Gabriel reference relates to a number of collapsed funds that the Public Trustee has taken control of.
Work relating to these funds continues to cost the States a lot of time and money through the Office of the Public Trustee, with little in the public domain about what it entails.
Earlier this year, the current President of Economic Development, Deputy Neil Inder – who once called one of the ongoing cases and related grant structure a ‘thorn in the Committee’s side’ - responded to a handful of questions:
“[This is] a complicated and difficult case – this remains ongoing and has not yet been resolved," he said.
“As the case is not yet concluded I cannot make any further comments on the matter at the current time and I will not speculate... this is a matter entirely for the Committee of Economic Development.”
Ms Rowe resigned as Public Trustee in 2017 following the confirmation that the Office of the Public Trustee had paid the Ferbrache and Farrell law firm £300,000 out of public funds.
Pictured: Deputy Peter Ferbrache and Ms Rowe were both fully exonerated.
The Committee for Economic Development is responsible for the Office of the Public Trustee and at the time the committee's President was Deputy Peter Ferbrache, who is a consultant for the law firm.
The review also found both Ms Rowe and Deputy Ferbrache had done nothing wrong.
Despite that, Ms Rowe resigned and the then-ED Committee recommended the States appoint Mr Gonzalez to the role for a period of five years, with immediate effect.
That was approved in May 2018.
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