Jersey States still to implement 44% of recommendations, report says

The Comptroller and Auditor General said the government had "fallen short" of its targets set at the beginning of 2022

Recommendations for the States of Jersey dating back to 2014 have not yet been implemented, a financial regulator has confirmed.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) published a report saying 44% of recommendations were overdue.

In January the number of overdue recommendations had risen to 87.

Chief executive of the Government of Jersey Suzanne Wylie said the "nature of actions required" to implement the recommendations varied.

Comptroller and Auditor General Lynn Pamment said its recommendations were "not being realised".

"Independent external audit is an important part of the process of accountability for the use of public money, it provides assurance on the management of public funds and on corporate governance," she said.

'Huge pressures'

The C&AG gives recommendations to "improve governance and accountability, value for money, financial management and internal control" of public funds.

Ms Pamment said the independent audit's role was "even more important" as there were "huge pressures on public services".

She said: "While the States of Jersey have implemented many C&AG recommendations during 2022 there remains a significant number of recommendations that have not yet been implemented fully.

"As a consequence, recognised opportunities for better and more effective delivery of services and use of public money are yet to be realised."

• 'Weaknesses' in governance of Jersey independent bodies

• Large number of recommendations for States of Jersey overdue

• States accounting needs 'significant improvement'

The regulator said although the States had implemented a "number of recommendations during 2022", it had "fallen short" of its targets set at the beginning of 2022.

Ms Pamment said it was "disappointing to see an increasing trend in recommendations that are overdue for action against the timescales for implementation set by Government".

Chief executive of the Government of Jersey Suzanne Wylie said it set a "challenging target of implementing 80% of open recommendations".

She said: "Implementation may require legislative change whilst other recommendations may require policy or process change which takes time to fully implement.

"There is a clear understanding of objectives, scope of work undertaken, and proposed recommendations to support positive change for the Island."

Ms Wylie said it had developed a "clear protocol for responding to C&AG reports" to support improvement within the government.

"Whilst that target wasn't fully achieved, government takes the recommendations from the C&AG reports very seriously and has introduced a new monitoring system to help ensure improvements and associated actions are prioritised and implemented in a timely way," she said.

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