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The management of Jersey’s over-£1bn public property portfolio will be undergoing yet another review, Scrutiny has announced.
The Public Accounts Committee - a panel of politicians responsible for reviewing how effectively public money is spent and looked after - will be reviewing the way the Government Government’s strategies regarding its public assets, as well as its communication with the wider Jersey community.
One of the key parts of the report, due to be published in the third quarter of 2021, will be pushing for the completion of the Estate Management Strategy, the lack of which has been the subject of repeated criticism from the Comptroller and Auditor General, and more recently charity Les Amis, which complained that “systemic” issues have frustrated their efforts to build a complex needs unit.
PAC will also be pushing for an accompanying Corporate Asset Management Plan to implement the strategy.
In addition, it will scrutinise how the new OneGov structure has impacted the management of public properties, as well as pressing to complete the restructuring of Infrastructure, Housing and Environment (IHE) Department for the end of 2021.
Pictured: Fort Regent has been one of the biggest talking points of the portfolio.
The review comes after recommendations from the Comptroller and Auditor General issued in 2018, and a damning report from the PAC last year which revealed Jersey Property Holdings’ failure to maintain 500-plus properties could lead to a £20m backlog bill.
In 2018, then-Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG), Karen McConnell’s report, it was stated that “a silo mentality” had led to Jersey Property Holdings having only achieved a single one of its objectives
She added that “the absence of a property strategy means that there was no explicit mechanism for translating the property-related objectives in the States’ Strategic Plan into deliverables.”
This was then followed by the PAC’s 2019 report, where they expressed how they were “dismayed that JPH has incurred costs by not planning ahead,” citing a lack of “proper costings of future-proofing buildings, making current stock compliant with expected legislation, and maintaining building stock to appropriate levels of repair.”
Pictured: PAC Chair Inna Gardiner will be leading the new report into the handling of Jersey's public assets.
Commenting on the new review, which will kick off in January, PAC Chair, Deputy Inna Gardiner, said, “The new membership of the PAC did not want to lose sight of the very hard work that the former Committee members put into pressing the Executive to provide a comprehensive Estate Management Strategy and property maintenance programme.
“We are committed to undertaking the next important phase of this Review and holding Government officials to account for the delivery of a comprehensive Estate Management Strategy.
“We will publish a final report by September 2021, by which time we will have questioned all departments on their views of public land and property management. We will continue to press for a joined-up approach to property maintenance.”
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