The findings of the latest audit of annual reports produced by States-owned or controlled entities have been published by the island’s government spending watchdog.
Comptroller and Auditor General Lynn Pamment, whose job is to provide independent assurance to islanders “on the extent to which public money is spent economically, efficiently and effectively”, has undertaken a review of annual reporting every year since 2020.
The latest audit involved a full examination of the 2025 annual reports of 28 entities owned or controlled by the States, with regard to minimum standards, enhanced practice and best practice.
Many entities, regardless of size, demonstrate aspects of enhanced and best practice reporting as well as meeting all, or the vast majority of, minimum standards
Comptroller and Auditor General Lynn Pamment
This included four key requirements of whether they were published by the relevant deadline, made available as legislation required, contained “clear coverage” of all necessary elements and – in cases where financial statements had to be produced – had done so under a “suitable framework” and were “suitably assured”.
The figures at a glance…
- 25 of the 28 entities’ 2025 annual reports reviewed met all four requirements.
- One entity failed to publish its report by the required deadline.
- Two entities’ annual reports did not contain all required elements as they did not contain clear coverage of an accountability report.
- The annual reports for 12 entities demonstrated “enhanced practices”, utilising links to supplementary information where appropriate to avoid reports being too long.
- Most of the annual reports were published in April.
- The minimum standards expected for transparency were met by 20 out of the 28 annual reports reviewed.
- Additionally, 19 of these 20 entities “used presentational techniques to thread the narrative in a consistent way” throughout their reports.
“My first report on annual reporting was published in August 2020,” Ms Pamment said.
“Since that time I have observed year on year improvements in the annual reports produced by most entities,” she continued.
“Many entities, regardless of size, demonstrate aspects of enhanced and best practice reporting as well as meeting all, or the vast majority of, minimum standards.”
Ms Pamment recommended that a working group should be established, to improve “the consistency, accountability and transparency” of reporting by smaller entities required to publish standalone annual reports whose financial transactions are also included in the States of Jersey Annual Report.
