Yesterday, the Scrutiny Panel spoke with Senator Alan Maclean (Sen AM) in his position as Treasury Minister; he was accompanied by two of his team.
The meeting went on for two hours, so we will just put a few points here!
We strongly recommend, however, you read the transcript/listen to the recording as soon as it is available on the Scrutiny website – links below – especially as there were a lot of semantics.
Sen AM agreed he supported and encouraged Scrutiny, and that he is the representative of the shareholders (ie, the public).
One crucial point to come out is that the Treasury Department of the States based its decision to go ahead on a summary of the conclusions given by the JDC, and that Treasury have not done their own Red Book Valuation. (See link below.)
There was also a discrepancy in the value of predicted profits: Sen AM says the profits will be £55m (give or take 10%) in today’s money while SoJDC say it will be £55m in 10 years’ time – that is quite a big difference, so which is it?
Scrutiny had not had any of the documents asked for from the SoJDC last week, and Sen AM was requested to chase them up, including any correspondence pertaining to refusals of any requests. We are asking why the SoJDC have not managed to even get one document to Scrutiny, such as the minutes from a particular meeting pertaining to ‘the pledge’.
Sen AM did not discuss with Sen Philip Ozouf the matter of the broken pledge. Sen Ozouf has been very ill, so a delay was expected; however, we heard on the radio that he is recovering enough to do a little work from his hospital bed, so a phone call wouldn’t have been out of the question.
We have a recording (see links) where Sen OP says ‘must be fully let before commencement’, but that was not reflected in the minutes, according to what Sen AM said today. This recording is also on the JEP website.
Sen AM was very clear that the Master Plan is not set in stone but is a vision, and should be seen as a living and flexible document.
Asked why the Harcourt 2008 report is classed as highly confidential and not available for the States to view, Sen AM said it was out of date and irrelevant.
Scrutiny asked, should the JDC not be able to meet their loans, would Sen AM allow them to fail or bail them out? After some to-ing and fro-ing, no clear answer was given as Sen AM would not countenance a failure happening.
LINKS
Which States members voted Pour/Contre in debates: http://www.statesassembly.gov.je/Pages/Votes.aspx
Scrutiny podcasts: http://www.Scrutiny.gov.je/podcasts/Pages/Podcasts.aspx
Scrutiny transcripts: http://www.Scrutiny.gov.je/Pages/ReviewTranscripts.aspx
Recording of what Senator Ozouf *really* said: http://sosjersey.co.uk/esplanade-let-agreement-the-truth/
At the time of writing, the latest transcript available (11 June 2015, with C. Le Masurier Limited) is here: http://www.statesassembly.gov.je/ScrutinyReviewTranscripts/2015/Transcript%20-%20Jersey%20International%20Finance%20Centre%20-%20C%20Le%20Masurier%20-%2011%20June%202015.pdf
What is a Red Book Valuation? http://www.rics.org/us/knowledge/professional-guidance/redbook