Guernsey civil service criticised after hospital overspend news

Deputy Mark Helyar said the States had no executive control over the civil service

A former deputy chief minister has accused civil servants in the States of "trying to avoid" work they are mandated to do.

Deputy Mark Helyar commented after it was found officials knew about a potential £30m hospital overspend.

Guernsey's current chief minister said he did not believe there was a culture of secrecy within the States.

The civil servants' union said they "work hard" and asked that criticism was not "magnified out of context".

Following the revelation government officials knew about the potential £30m overspend on the hospital a review of how big projects are managed within the States was launched.

'No executive control'

Mr Helyar was critical of the civil service following his time as treasury lead on the Policy and Resources Committee.

"The message 'we don't have any money' doesn't seem to be getting through to the civil service," he said.

"Anyone that can sit on a £30m over budget potential spend and not say anything to anybody - it's incredible this is still going on in the civil service.

"We have no executive control over what the civil service does, we can't hire and fire people, we can't demand better standards.

"I've a number of examples of, even with States resolutions, civil servants trying to avoid the work we've been mandated to do," he added.

'Demanding circumstances'

A spokesperson for Prospect, the union which represents civil servants in Guernsey, said they were dedicated and have no right of reply when criticised.

It said: "We would like to remind everyone that the civil service is a body of people that works hard, often in demanding circumstances, to ensure that islanders receive effective public services across a wide range of areas.

"Any criticisms should therefore not be magnified out of context and used to denigrate civil servants in general who, it must also be remembered, have no right of public reply against such statements."

'Hard-working individuals'

Mark de Garis, head of the Public Service, said it was "completely unacceptable" that the Committee for Health and Social Care was not told of the estimates of higher costs for the hospital sooner.

He said he had instigated an urgent review as a consequence but expressed support for civil servants.

"While I don't want to pre-empt the outcome of that review, I can say my personal experience is that this incident does not reflect the wider public service, which is made up of many hard-working individuals who are committed to supporting their political members with honesty, integrity and impartiality in line with the Civil Service Code."