Ministers to draft new rules for travel and expenses

Saturday 01 July 2017

New rules are being urgently drawn up covering how Ministers should account for their spending on travel and other expenses, after it emerged one of Jersey’s most high-profile politicians repaid more than £11,000 spent on his States purchase card for items including books, clothes, medical expenses and an iPad.

Between 2014 and 2016, Senator Philip Ozouf – former Treasury Minister, and Assistant Chief Minister responsible for financial services – spent £52,745.74 on his States card, with more than a fifth of that (£11,454.69) used to pay for goods and services, many personal, which he later refunded.

Purchases varied over the years, ranging from minor iTunes expenditure and book buying to flights and hotels. In October 2015, Senator Ozouf bought himself ‘The Joy of Tax’ and David Cameron’s biography on his States card. In 2016, meanwhile, he spent £480.95 on an iPad at IQ.

The Senator was also found to have spent £135.53 on clothes at ‘Pink Trading’ during a trip to Rwanda.

Hundreds of pounds’ worth of personal flights and taxi travel were charged straight to his States card, with many of those flights for an anonymised guest.

But the former Minister told Express yesterday that he believed some of those purchases to be “legitimate business expenditure”, while he claimed that others had been incurred due to difficulties with using his personal card abroad.

He stated that the medical appointments occurred during “States business” while in Estonia, and that the sum spent on clothing occurred during an “emergency” when he had to spend an extra day in Rwanda. The guest flights were bought for his partner, which he said were purchased on his States card rather than his own, “…because you’re allowed to do that.”

"I’ve represented Jersey as the Treasury Minister, as a Minister for Financial Services and Digital tirelessly and honestly for a number of years, and am obviously one of the biggest travellers of the States. When you’re travelling, you have to meet expenditure, which is legitimate business expenditure and you have to pay for it. I’ve often found myself in situations where I have had to pay for legitimate business expenditure in cash, credit cards that’s acceptable in the jurisdiction that is actually working, and so on,” he commented.

While there are currently no States regulations governing ministerial card expenditure, financial directions for civil servants state that, “…misuse of the card will result in the card holder facing disciplinary action, e.g. cardholders must not under any circumstances use their purchase card to fund personal expenditure.” While not a formal policy, it is understood that Ministers are expected to follow the same guidance, and the regulations do also clearly apply to those with delegated authority- it's not been confirmed if this includes Assistant Ministers. 

Nonetheless, a States spokesperson said that this would be reviewed as a matter of urgency.

“Now that these figures from the past three years have been officially reconciled and published, the Chief Minister will be in a position to formally discuss the matter with the Council of Ministers. What this shows is that we need to develop a ministerial code on travel and expenses, and the Chief Minister has requested that this be drawn up and considered by Council of Ministers in early course,” they said.

Express is still awaiting a response regarding the amount of interest accrued on the States card, and whether Senator Ozouf will be subject to any disciplinary action.

In the meantime, the Senator has pledged to record all expenditure on detail on his blog, which can be viewed here.