The Health Minister personally ordered officials to push ahead with Jersey’s £710m hospital contract before outstanding internal approvals and assurance work had been completed, accepting the risk that the move could ultimately result in the States’ accounts being qualified, it has emerged.
The extraordinary letter, published for the first time today, lifts the lid on the dramatic final days before the Island’s biggest-ever capital contract was signed just two days before the General Election – and comes while the spending watchdog is carrying out a review of the project.
The instruction was issued by Health Minister Tom Binet on 3 June – who resumed his ministerial role after the election – amid mounting uncertainty over whether the long-awaited contract for the acute hospital at Overdale would actually be signed before Islanders went to the polls.
Two days later, Government announced that the deal with construction giant Bouygues UK had crossed the line.
But the newly published correspondence reveals the extraordinary manoeuvring taking place behind the scenes.
“In advance of any further internal confirmations”
Writing to Health and Care Jersey Chief Officer Tom Walker (pictured top, right), who is Accountable Officer for the programme, Deputy Binet formally instructed him to have the contract prepared “to proceed with the Acute element immediately”.
“This instruction confirms that I intend to sign the contract in advance of any further internal confirmations, approvals and reviews and that I assume and acknowledge responsibility and accountability for that decision,” he wrote.
The Minister acknowledged that the Treasury Minister, Treasurer and Principal Accountable Officer wanted further work undertaken to provide assurance around the “regularity, economy, efficiency and effectiveness” of the proposed contract, but concluded that waiting carried a greater risk.
The then-Deputy Binet said he was prepared to rely on the “significant levels of assurance” already provided and believed that, on the “balance of risks”, the benefit of carrying out further work before signing was “considerably outweighed” by the possibility of costs increasing if the contract was delayed further.
“In doing so I am aware that entering into the contract in advance of internal sign offs or exemptions, such as by the Commercial Services Approval Board, may create a risk of qualification of the States 2026 Annual Report and Accounts by the external auditors,” the minister wrote.
Officials absolved of personal responsibility
The correspondence is an unusual mechanism known as a ‘letter of instruction’, which effectively transfers responsibility for proceeding with a potentially contentious decision from the civil service official with responsibility for a particular project or area to a Minister.
Deputy Binet acknowledged Mr Walker’s duties under the Public Finances Law and noted that the Public Finances Manual provided that, where an Accountable Officer was instructed to follow a particular course of action, they and their staff would “bear no personal responsibility for the action resulting from my decision”.
The Minister said he nevertheless expected further work and audit to take place after signing.
The letter was copied to a formidable list of senior figures – including government spending watchdog Comptroller and Auditor General Lynn Pamment, Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham, Treasury Minister Elaine Millar, Government chief executive Andrew McLaughlin and Treasurer Richard Bell.
What Islanders were told…
At the time the deal was announced on 5 June, the New Healthcare Facilities Programme team confirmed that the procurement process had concluded and Bouygues had formally been appointed Main Works Delivery Partner.
“The contract, signed between the Government of Jersey and Bouygues UK, is within the financial envelope agreed by the States Assembly for Phase 1 of the New Healthcare Facilities Programme,” its statement said.
It added: “Ongoing assurance will continue to be completed over the coming weeks as required in the contract and further information will be issued in due course.”
The announcement came after weeks of speculation about the future of the project and repeated questions over why the contract remained unsigned more than six months after Bouygues had been named as the preferred bidder.
What happened next…
A second newly published letter provides an important qualification to the drama.
On 19 June – a fortnight after the contract was signed – Mr Walker wrote back to Deputy Binet to say the outstanding work had caught up with the decision.
He said the ministerial instruction had been “necessary at the time to expedite the contracting process”, but that “over the last two weeks, all necessary assurance activity has now been completed to the point where I have been able to fulfil my accountabilities under the Public Finances Law”.
That included meeting the Treasury Minister’s requirements and completing outstanding Commercial Services approvals.
However, Mr Walker added that it had been agreed that “internal audit assurance work will now be undertaken over the coming weeks”.
Watchdog already looking under the bonnet
The circumstances surrounding the hospital contract are already under scrutiny from the Comptroller and Auditor General, who in July launched an audit into the £710m Overdale project following the last-minute drama surrounding the contract.
That same month, shortly after his re-election, Deputy Binet criticised the C&AG after she raised last-minute assurance requirements around the hospital deal which, he said, had threatened to derail its signing.
Weeks later, the pair clashed again over a separate C&AG report into the sustainability of Jersey’s healthcare funding, with Deputy Binet questioning how much the department could learn from it and arguing that much of its content was “not new”.
That report itself painted a stark picture of the financial pressures facing Health, projecting total annual healthcare expenditure to rise from £787m to more than £1bn by 2035 and £1.295bn by 2045.
Reacting to the report, Senator Binet said he doubted that the health service would learn anything from it.
“These reports tend to be written in a tone that assumes people on the receiving end haven’t thought of these things, or aren’t currently dealing with them,” he said.
“Most of what’s been said in the report is quite logical, but it’s not new.”
