No decision on disciplinary action over new £400,000 flight details

Friday 15 April 2016

Two civil servants from the Economic Development department may be facing disciplinary action over taxpayer-funded business class flights to Cape Town, but two more staff from the Chief Minister’s department aren’t facing action for taking flights that cost even more to Singapore, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo and New York.

A spokesman for the Chief Minister’s department says that no decision has been made yet on the cases of International Affairs Adviser Colin Powell (who took a £6,852 flight to Hong Kong in 2011 and a £6,771 flight to Singapore in 2013) or Director of Financial Services Joe Moynihan (who took a £6,610 flight to Sao Paulo in 2015 and a £6,544 flight to New York in 2013).

The flights cost more than the £6,442 tickets that saw Economic Development Department Chief Officer Mike King and Locate Jersey Director Wayne Gallichan issue public apologies for their “errors of judgment”. Both are facing disciplinary proceedings over their tickets to a mining conference in Cape Town in February.

The spokesman said that a final decision over Mr Powell and Mr Moynihan would be taken at the end of the current reviews of travel expenses for civil servants, expected at the end of May.

“States-wide reviews of travel policy and expenditure are underway,” said the spokesman.

“The scope of these reviews encompass the travel spend of the whole of the public sector, including all Government departments and the individuals within those departments.

“When the findings of the reviews are published on 31^st May this year, we will implement any appropriate changes, and if there are individual cases that require action to be taken, we will be doing that too. In addition, we are also providing information to the Public Accounts Committee.”

The new flights came to light when the Chief Minister’s department confirmed that senior States employees have spent almost £400,000 on expensive trips away in the last five years.

Figures show that civil servants have taken 120 flights worth more than £1,000 in the last five years, at a total cost to the taxpayer of £389,553.

They do not cover flights by ministers, who last year clocked up £78,468 in travel and entertainment expenses, with Assistant Chief Minister Philip Ozouf leading the pack with a combined travel and entertainment bill of £27,273.

States Chief Executive John Richardson and the States' top finance manager, Treasurer Richard Bell, are set to answer questions about civil servants' travel expenses at a Public Accounts Committee hearing today.