“Civil servants’ Avios points must be used for work trips” – Gorst

Tuesday 26 April 2016

Any civil servants who earn Avios points from taxpayer-funded flights should have to use those points for work-related trips, not for personal or family travel, says Chief Minister Ian Gorst.

Senator Gorst told the States that he wanted the existing policies to change to force civil servants to only use the points that they earn through work trips to reduce the future cost of work travel.

A fortnight ago it was revealed that almost £400,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent over the last five years on flights costing more than £1,000 – the figures came to light after it was revealed that civil servants were booking late, flexible, business class fares for flights for work.

But the Chief Minister’s comments clash with States Chief Executive John Richardson’s evidence to a review of travel costs last week, in which he said that some staff should be allowed to keep points as a “perk” to compensate for having to travel at the weekend.

In response to questions from Deputy Sam Mezec in the States this morning, Senator Gorst said that the existing arrangements had to change – and that an ongoing review of States’ travel policy that is due to be completed by May would make recommendations to tighten travel rules and ultimately reduce the cost of travel.

Senator Gorst said: “We want to develop a policy similar to the policy in the UK by the Treasury whereby Avios points are used to offset the future costs of travel by that individual, thereby benefitting the taxpayer.

“That’s why we are reviewing the policy.

“I expect that the review will put in place policies to deal with all of these issues in a way that gets better value for all taxpayers and I also expect that in due course we will see a reduced cost in those particular areas.

“We need to make sure that those individuals Avios points are used to offset future travel costs to benefit the taxpayer, and that’s what needs to change.”

Also this morning, the Chief Minister has refused to publish information about accommodation and other expenses alongside flight details until a review of travel policy is published at the end of May.

The response this morning revealed that the information had been collated for the last two years, but that it would not be published until the final reports next month.

Deputy Sam Mezec had asked for the information to be published on top of flight details that were published last week – those details showed that close to £400,000 was spent by civil servants on 120 flight tickets costing more than £1,000 over the last five years.

Those figures revealed that of the 120 tickets costing £1,000 or more, four cost more than the £6,442 flexible business class tickets taken by Economic Development Chief Officer Mike King and Locate Jersey Director Wayne Gallichan took to a mining conference in Cape Town.

Those trips, which cost up to £6,852, were taken by International Affairs Adviser Colin Powell and Director of Financial Services Joe Moynihan.

Last week, States Chief Executive John Richardson told the Public Accounts Committee that some ministers had effectively over-ruled States financial rules which require civil servants to fly economy while ministers fly business class – he said that they made the decision so that politicians could sit with staff through the flight, but did not explain why officers were allowed to “upgrade” instead of asking ministers to fly economy.

He also said that some staff had gold or silver cards with BA, which allowed them to claim extra Avios points for flights that they had booked, on top of the normal points allowance which went to the States.