FOCUS: The mystery of the 'CEO papers'

Tuesday 11 June 2024

When the Government recruited an interim CEO back in January, he was given the task of producing three key papers that would shape the future of the 8,000-strong organisation and, importantly, save money... But, more than six months later, and despite numerous requests, those reports are nowhere to be seen. What happened?

Responding to a request from Express made under the Freedom of Information Law last week, officials confirmed that "the requested papers are not held by the Government of Jersey".

The in-tray

When Dr Andrew McLaughlin started as head of the island's public service as part of a secondment from NatWest bank back in September, there were many challenging items in his in-tray.

Not only was reshaping his own role, and the structure of the team that supports him among them, but also closely examining the efficiency of Government as a whole.

At the time, it had recently emerged that the number of civil servants had grown by more than 1,000 since the launch of previous CEO Charlie Parker's 'OneGov' plan to save money and slim down the size of Government.

Despite this swelling size, spend on external consultants remained in the multi-millions.

The challenge

Against this backdrop, the new Interim CEO was set a number of objectives by the then-Chief Minister Kristina Moore, including a "new operating rhythm" among senior leaders and giving "clear" advice to Ministers.

Crucially, he was to provide two key papers "which provide a strategic view and set the strategic vision for the Government of Jersey and inform the 2024 planning cycle" by December 2023.

Dr McLaughlin was also to provide the Chief Minister with an 'options paper' identifying "five pragmatic and deliverable options to simplify public service delivery with material efficiencies by the end of 2025".

To publish...or not to publish?

In January 2024, after initially saying that she would not publish Dr McLaughlin's reports, then-Chief Minister Kristina Moore said that she was "committed to publishing [the CEO papers] when they are ready".

At the time, Deputy Moore said she would "endeavour" to provide "a distinct date" for their release.

When asked to confirm that the three papers would be published in full and not censored in any way, Deputy Moore said: "I think they are written with that intention because that's what we set out to do."

In February, following the vote of no confidence in Deputy Moore, Express asked the Government to confirm if the new Chief Minister would be honouring his predecessor's commitment to make the CEO papers public.

Over four months later, Express has still not received a definitive answer to this question.

Where are they?

After months of emails to the Government press office, Express submitted a request for the two key papers and the options paper authored by Dr McLaughlin under the Freedom of Information Law.

The response said: "The requested papers are not held by the Government of Jersey, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies."

Article 3 of the law stipulates that information is only available under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 if it is “information held by a public authority”.

This includes information "held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person", or information "held by another person on behalf of the authority.".

Express has asked the Government to confirm why the papers are not held by the Government of Jersey, and where they are held instead.