Jersey has opened a new tender process after failing to make a decision during the joint search, with bids expected to come in from Brittany/Condor and DFDS today.
Guernsey has selected the former and will announce a schedule by the end of this week.
Politicians in charge yesterday both expanded on how events unfolded in the late stages of the 10-month process when decisions needed to be made.
Pictured (l-r): Deputy Kirsten Morel and Deputy Neil Inder.
Jersey’s Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel had already gone public with the fact that DFDS had scored a mandatory legal fail when his officials assessed the bids, along with some concerns over Condor’s finances.
Under grilling from a scrutiny committee in Jersey yesterday he expanded.
“Legal evaluators, who are not part of government, but equally, are not external, in both Jersey and Guernsey, mark the DFDS bid on the contractual side of it, which is just 5% of the overall mark, they mark that as a mandatory fail,” said Deputy Morel.
“I found that difficult to understand at the time. I still do.
“The bid at this stage is still in the hands of senior reporting officers. It was not in my hands. And Guernsey chose at that point to say, ‘right, DFDS are eliminated’.
“Jersey said, hold on a sec, this is a bit we’d like to discuss. We were told, ‘no discussion. This is what’s happening’.
“I totally accepted that. Afterwards, when we still had massive concerns around Brittany Ferries/Condor, particularly around the technical, the commercial and the financial aspects, we had real concerns about that, I, as a Jersey minister, could not overlook those concerns.
“In the marking they were shown to be in the failed status. Guernsey had very, very different scoring on that.”
Guernsey has maintained the Brittany bid passed all tender requirements.
Deputy Morel said at that point the senior reporting officers from both islands should have come together to discuss the scores.
Pictured: Jersey’s Economic Development Minister, Deputy Kirsten Morel.
“But Guernsey chose to tie up its scores and just say we’re awarding to Brittany Ferries. No meeting took place, as I understand it, between the senior reporting officers to say, ‘look, we’ve got two very different perspectives of this, can we come together?’
“That was, in my view, denied by our counterpart, which was Guernsey, and so that conversation did not happen.
“We then tried, at the political level, to bring politicians around the table, say, ‘look, Jersey has got some really genuine, very genuine, as I alluded to in my statement, concerns’. But we were not given the opportunity. We did talk with Guernsey politicians, but we were told, ‘we are not changing our mind. This is what we’re doing’.”
Jersey asked DFDS and Brittany various clarification questions.
Deputy Morel said that Guernsey were not interested in that information.
The Guernsey perspective
Ahead of the scrutiny hearing, Guernsey’s Economic Development committee had responded to comments Deputy Morel and others made in the Jersey States earlier this week.
President Deputy Neil Inder said: “‘I’ve been concerned about public commentary in relation to Condor’s prior financial challenges.
“I consider this somewhat of a red herring, given Condor’s financial issues at the end of 2023 were well known and importantly occurred when it was owned by a different company – Columbia Threadneedle. No funding was provided by the States of Guernsey at the time and Brittany Ferries subsequently became the majority shareholder of Condor, bringing increased financial security.”
He said his committee maintained the view that the tender process was undertaken correctly, in line with agreed rules and methodology, and that a preferred bidder could be appointed.
The committee said it was “concerned at some of the narrative around the process and believes there is a need to again clarify the process undertaken prior to selecting Brittany Ferries as its preferred bidder.
It said that:
- The Invitation to Tender was jointly agreed by both Guernsey and Jersey, by officers and politically. The 10-month process was run by evaluators in both islands, jointly.
- The process was closed by the Senior Responsible Officers in both islands.
- The Committee would not have wanted to discuss individual bids publicly, however as it was confirmed in the Jersey States that DFDS’ bid received a legal fail the Committee feels obligated to clarify the DFDS bid received a legal fail in both islands.
- Brittany Ferries bid was very strong and passed all requirements under the tender, including financial.
- The Committee followed the tender process to its rightful conclusion given the circumstances and did not consider it fair or appropriate to take any other course of action.
Guernsey timetable due this week
Deputy Morel expects to make an announcement on who has won the contract for a Jersey only service in the first week of December. They have called in independent legal advisors to help.
Here, final discussions in relation to the Guernsey-only draft contract are taking place this week.
“As soon as we have an agreed draft contract the schedule will be published,” said Deputy Inder.
“These types of contracts are complex, but I have made it clear to officers that I want the work done to enable us to publish the schedules this week, not next week.”
Pictured: Deputy Neil Inder.
Subject to final discussions and to relevant approvals and governance requirements the States of Guernsey will be granting a licence under the Ro-Ro Sea-Links (Guernsey) Law, 2024 to Brittany Ferries together with permission to assign the licence to Condor Ferries subject to compliance with the concession agreement.
Brittany Ferries provides a full financial and operational guarantee over the services in the contract, Economic Development has said.
The contract will secure the same level of capacity for both freight and passenger services as is in place currently, without any notable increase in price for customers, it added, however there will be some changes to fleet usage and timings.
Currently, both islands are jointly paying for backup ferries to be in place as a contingency should Condor face any problems.
That has cost them some £3m. so far, but Jersey still needs to make a decision about what happens from January when those contracts expire.
Guernsey will not be renewing.
Condor’s position
Condor’s 2023 accounts have stated that the operation of the group was dependent on the successful outcome of the tender process. And loans it refinanced and restructured in the last year are “conditional on the successful outcome of the tender process,” the accounts say.
Deputy Morel has told the Jersey States that in September he received a letter stating that in the event Condor was unsuccessful in securing the future operating agreement, it could not guarantee to be able to continue trading for the remainder of the operating agreement which ends in March.
“The letter made it clear that Condor would likely require funding from the Government of Jersey of up to £36m in order to see out its contractual obligations.”
Brittany Ferries on “damaging comments” in Jersey States
Brittany Ferries Chairman Jean-Marc Roué has responded to the on-going ferry contract saga with a clear message for Jersey’s Chief Minister.
In a letter to Lyndon Farnham, Monsieur Roué expressed surprise and concern that the Condor-Brittany Ferries bid had not been accepted by Jersey.
He also confirmed the company will respond to a new Jersey-only bid process.
He added that he had no option but to respond to damaging comments made in the States of Jersey Assembly and in media reports over the last week.
“The company I chair exists because its only guide is customer satisfaction,” Roué says in the letter.
“The financial benefits of our activities are totally reinvested in the company. For example, we are in the middle of the largest fleet renewal process in our history with five new-generation ships, including two powered by cleaner hybrid LNG-electric technology.”
The Breton farming community have been Brittany Ferries’ majority shareholders since the company’s birth in 1972. Their aim is to enrich the regions in which it operates, to connect people and to facilitate trade.
“I should also point out that, never in our 52 year history have we abandoned a ferry line or a service to a region for lack of profitability,” the letter adds.
“Our farmer-shareholders are responsible and are proud to be partners with the two major French regions of Brittany and Normandy. We are a highly-respected company and we entered this competition in good faith to continue our service to islanders.”
READ MORE…
DFDS bid ruled out because it demanded unilateral right to change prices and services
ED “confident” in Guernsey-only ferry service
Jersey asks Condor to stay for seven more months
Condor: Did other ferry bidders plan to use our boats?
