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While the sudden departure of Suzanne Wylie sparked huge debate over the future role of the island's most senior civil servant, it's now emerged that "no major changes" are planned as the Government gets ready to open recruitment for a permanent successor.
In the wake of Ms Wylie's exit being announced, there was much speculation over what prompted her to hand in her notice after just 13 months in post, but it was clear that the CEO’s role and responsibilities were a topic of much discussion at the political top table.
Indeed, in her own resignation letter, Mrs Wylie wrote: “There is much political debate on the role of the CEO and my departure will also open the opportunity to assess if it should be changed and to what degree.”
When later asked about what changes she believe need to be made to the role of Government CEO, Mrs Wylie said that the "level of expectations and support" around the £250,000 job needed improvement.
Mrs Wylie added at the time that a group had been set up by the Chief Minister to consider the changes that need to be made ahead of the recruitment for the next permanent CEO and said that she had shared her thoughts with this group on a "number of occasions".
She explained: "I don’t think that the actual legislation of the role needs to change significantly – I think it’s more about the systems and its more about the support mechanisms beneath the CEO to enable them to do their job."
Speaking about the "biggest challenges of the role", Mrs Wylie said: “I think that some of the challenges have been the fact that some of the systems, infrastructure, and support mechanisms around the CEO aren’t mature enough yet in the organisation.” She added that one of her predecessors, Charlie Parker, had shared similar sentiments.
In the following months, many discussions have been held in the top-tiers of Government about the future of the role, and whether the operational and advisory aspects of the role should be split, while the Chief Minister commissioned someone who had previously held the role – current Charity Commissioner John Mills CBE – to write a report on the matter.
CLICK TO READ: Suzanne Wylie's resignation letter, dated 14 March.
Among his recommendations were that the next CEO should be supported by a team of up to six people, including an in-house lawyer, Cabinet Office Director and Private Secretary.
Despite all this, Vice Chair of the States Employment Board Andy Jehan admitted to the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel last week that there are "no major changes to the role profile planned, just an update in priorities in line with the new Government Plan”.
Currently working in the role is Interim Chief Executive Andrew McLaughlin, who started in September and will work until May 2024.
The Government has confirmed that recruitment for the permanent Government of Jersey CEO role will start in November.
However, asked by Express when the permanent Government CEO is expected to be in post, how much had been budgeted for the recruitment process, and what recruitment agencies would be used, the Government said that all the other details are not yet finalised.
A previous point of controversy was that Suzanne Wylie had not been working towards a specific set of targets during the year she had been in the £250,000-a-year role.
In the States Assembly sitting earlier this week, the Chief Minister confirmed that five objectives had been agreed with the Interim CEO to be achieved by the first quarter. She confirmed that these objectives would "shortly" be shared publicly. When asked by Deputy Lyndsay Feltham why the objectives could not be shared with States Members now, Deputy Kristina Moore said that the "simple answer" was that she didn't have them in front of her.
Deputy Moore added that the Interim CEO recruitment process had been "quite focussed" on "performance management" and "improving the productivity of our public service" which would be "reflected in the five objectives".
Last week's Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel hearing revealed that there is still no date yet for amendments to the employment law which would put in place effective statutory arrangements to set and monitor performance standards for the CEO role.
At the public hearing, Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel member Deputy Lyndon Farnham also said that the Treasury Minister had recently shared the “politically contentious concern” in reference to the ‘Principal Accounting Officer’ responsibility being part of the Government CEO role.
Since 2018, the CEO has been the ‘Principal Accounting Officer’ – a role defined under the Public Finances Law.
Although the POA is not responsible for making policy decisions - this responsibility lies with the Government of Jersey, Council of Ministers and Ministers – he or she is accountable for the implementation of policy “with due regard for the need to achieve value for money and good governance”.
Chief Minister Kristina Moore agreed that this "was contentious at the time" but said that "on balance, there is a ‘no change’ position" in relation to the Principal Accounting Officer part of the CEO role.
"We would welcome the views of the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel and it’s something that remains under consideration," she added.
Pictured: "My departure will open the opportunity to assess if it should be changed and to what degree," said former CEO Suzanne Wylie.
Chair of the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel Deputy Sam Mézec also asked about where the Government CEO sits in relation to the recently-created Cabinet Office, quizzing the Chief Minister on whether she is "expecting to make any changes in how that office is formatted when permanent CEO is recruited into it".
Deputy Moore replied that "looking at that leadership structure is something we want to do”, adding that there had been "clear feedback about size and sale of the role, and number of direct reports" which would "take some time to reflect on".
Constable Jehan confirmed that recruitment for the permanent CEO would begin "within the next six weeks".
He explained that the recruitment would be conducted in the same way as the recruitment for the Interim CEO, which Deputy Moore described as a “very successful process".
Pictured: Dr Andrew McLaughlin is Interim CEO on secondment from NatWest bank, where he co-leads its ‘Commercial and Institutional’ division.
Deputy Mézec asked if there was "any flexibility" in Interim CEO Andrew McLaughlin's contract "if things don't go to plan" in recruiting a permanent successor and "more time" is needed.
"That's a discussion we'd need to have," replied Constable Jehan.
Next CEO 'needs smaller senior team and in-house lawyer'
FOCUS: How might the role of the next Government CEO change?
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