That is despite the politician confirming to the JEP over a fortnight ago that they had secured just £60,000 in private sponsorship for the event which costs around £240,000 a year. The show was also given a grant of taxpayers’ money by the Economic Development Department totalling £90,000. At the time the Deputy said the final figures should be available ‘by next week’.
The States stepped in to underwrite the event after the its main sponsor – multi-millionaire businessman Robert Gaines-Cooper – withdrew his funding for the show about 12 months ago. According to Mr Higgins he informed Economic Development of the businessman’s decision straight away.
It emerged last week that five of the eight members of the TDF stood down from their positions after they claimed Economic Development Minister Lyndon Farnham granted the underwrite money without consulting them.
Meanwhile the display, which Deputy Higgins described as one of the best ever thanks to a combination of good weather and impressive aircraft, has received a glowing reference in the UK-based magazine Aeroplane Monthly. The magazine’ editor Ben Dunnell said: ‘In an era when civilian air displays can appear decidedly similar, Jersey always stands out, and the 2015 edition must go down as one of the finest. Best British air display of the year, perhaps? It’s certainly right up there.’
Last month more than half of the Tourism Development Fund panel resigned in a row over funding for the Jersey International Air Display.
They say Economic Development Minister Lyndon Farnham went over their heads to find the cash to make sure the event went ahead after its main sponsor, Seychelles-based multi-millionaire tycoon Robert Gaines-Cooper, withdrew his funding.
That was, on balance, the right decision. The air show is a hugely popular spectacle which now attracts significant numbers of visitors.
Although it is not clear just how much the final bill for the taxpayer will be, it looks likely to be the lion’s share of the £240,000 organiser Deputy Mike Higgins has said it cost to stage the display this year.
Peter Funk, who resigned as chairman of the TDF, has put the figure at £280,000 and suggests that nearly all of it will come from the public purse.
The lack of a public outcry akin to those which followed the use of hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund the ‘village improvements’ in St Mary and St Aubin – or a number of other divisive schemes – suggest people are happy for their money to have been spent as it was by Senator Farnham. But that is not the point.
The TDF panel resigned because the rushed decision drove a coach and horses through due process. Concern about how public money is spent may never have been so great.
With the Island standing in the shadow of a huge black hole, it is, as Mr Funk has said, essential that the decisions of those with their hands on the purse strings are ‘absolutely transparent’.
We must have confidence that our money is being spent responsibly. Today we learn that the TDF would have refused the eleventh-hour application from the Ports of Jersey to fund the air show because of concerns that they had not seen ‘any of the basic information about the accounts or the company’.
This is not a new concern. In February last year, then Economic Development Minister Alan Maclean raised serious concerns about a lack of proper accounts for the show. Instead of pulling funding, he awarded a grant to the Ports of Jersey, having decided he could not hand cash directly to the air show organisers.
It seems little has happened in the past 18 months to give real confidence that basic standards of good financial governance are being met.
