Watchdog report clears chief minister and deputy

Chief Minister Kristina Moore "provided inaccurate dates on two occasions"

A watchdog has cleared the chief minister and the deputy chief minister of deliberately misleading the Jersey States over the resignation of the chief executive.

Suzanne Wylie, the first female Chief Executive of Jersey's government, resigned from her role in March.

Kirsten Morel, the Deputy Chief Minister, was asked in a States sitting if he was aware of any "possible future resignations" in March, to which he said he was "not aware of any".

The Chief Minister Kristina Moore later confirmed Mr Morel was aware of Ms Wylie's decision to leave.

Deputy Chief Minister Kirsten Morel said he did not intend to mislead the Chamber

The report by the pan-island commissioner for standards found Mr Morel had not meant to mislead the States Assembly as he believed he was "answering a question regarding the Health Department".

"It did not occur to me either at the time of answering or in the subsequent days that I might have been seen to have misled the Assembly," he said in the report.

'A genuine mistake'

Ms Moore also confirmed she was aware of the resignation eight days before it was known by the public, saying the delay was by mutual agreement to "allow for planning".

The report did find "Deputy Moore provided inaccurate dates on two occasions", however it concluded this was not "due to any ulterior motive or to hide any misconduct of her own in relation to Ms Wylie’s notice of resignation, but rather a genuine mistake".

Dr Melissa McCullough, the pan-island commissioner for standards, concluded that neither Deputy Kristina Moore nor Deputy Kirsten Morel "deliberately obfuscated or avoided, or intended to mislead or misinform the Assembly".

She said "no further action is necessary".