Ministers challenged over £17m diverted to hospital project

Wednesday 30 June 2021

More details on the school and sports projects that had their money switched to help pay for the £800m hospital emerged yesterday, as the Minister in charge faced calls for more transparency.

Saying that the projects had been chosen because of a “natural lag” in their development, Education Minister Deputy Scott Wickenden faced questions from States Members on whether the funding should have gone into other Education projects.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that the Government was planning to take more than £17m from the budgets of other departments’ projects to fill a funding gap and keep the hospital project on schedule.

As a result, £1.6m of school improvements across Les Landes (£250,000), Mont a l’Abbe (£350,000) and La Moye (£650,000) Schools, and new playing fields for JCG and JCP (£336,000) have been deferred from 2021 into 2022.

Pictured: New Education Minister Deputy Scott Wickenden said that the money was "re-profiled", as it would not have otherwise been spent this year.

In addition, £1.5m of a site review for Rouge Bouillon school has also been deferred - last year, the school's Headmaster made an urgent plea to the Government to upgrade facilities, describing their improvements so far as only "sticking plasters.”

Speaking in the Assembly yesterday, the newly appointed Education Minister said that the projects were chosen to be deferred as they were already behind schedule because of struggles he said were “due to covid.” 

“My officers were asked where the budget might be re-profiled to release funds for the hospital on the understanding that our projects would be repaid to meet the costs when they more likely to be incurred,” he said.

“My officers took a view on which projects might have natural lag in them for practical reasons - for example, how far along they are in the necessary planning and building permissions, do they have a project manager assigned by [Infrastructure, Housing and Environment]?”

Pictured: Over £17m worth of funding has been taken from other initiatives across Government to keep the new hospital project on track, including £1.6m from plans to extend educational facilities. 

When faced with questions from several States Members on why the money could not be put into other Education projects for the year, he claimed that the money would not have been spent in Education anyway.

He explained that, under the Public Finances Law, unspent money goes back to the Government's central coffers. Deputy Wickenden went on to say that money for capital projects can’t simply be brought "back into the department and spend it somewhere else in... the department, it has to be looked at in a different way.”

A response to a written question earlier this month revealed that an assessment of how the money movement might impact the rights of local children had not been carried out because it was “anticipated” that it wouldn’t affect when the projects were delivered.

Education wasn’t the only area that came under scrutiny for the sudden deferrals either - Senator Steve Pallett also quizzed Assistant Economic Development Minister Deputy Hugh Raymond on what projects forming part of the “desperately needed” sports refurbishment would be delayed by the decision to redirect £500,000 of their funding towards the new hospital.

Deputy Raymond confirmed that affected projects included several within Les Quennevais (changing room updates, new playground, sauna), as well as the installation of new cricket nets, new lighting at the Airport playing fields, and a new CCTV system at FB Fields.

Pictured: £500,000 was also deferred from the sports division refurbishment.

Deputy Chief Minister Senator Lyndon Farnham, who is the political lead for the hospital project, maintained that the £17m taken from other projects was not additional funding and that the overall hospital project will remain within budget.

However, this claim was called into question by Senator Tracey Vallois, calling answers on the project “contradictory” and questioning whether the project was “too ambitious” considering the funds it has already used up.

In response, Senator Farnham said that the only changes had been to the timing of the project - not its budget. 

“...All and every cost that we talk about in the project is within the maximum estimated figure of £804.5m with which a proposition will be coming to the States for debate in September, to ask the States to approve that budget and to approve the funding of it,” he said.

Pictured: Senator Lyndon Farnham - whose answers were described as "conflicting" and contradictory" - maintained that the project would remain within budget.

Following this exchange, Deputy Mike Higgins was also prompted to demand more transparency on the breakdown of spending on the hospital project.

“I’m confused on the figures, other States Members are - we’re getting conflicting information, and we need to finally get on one piece of paper on this, what the exact figures are,” he added.

The States are due to debate the funding for the new hospital project in September.