Rules not followed on top civil servant post

However, mystery continues to surround what exactly did happen when John Richardson was permanently given the job of chief executive of the States, with contradictory claims about the involvement of the Jersey Appointments Commission and allegations of an internal row among its members.

This newspaper has learned that the decision to appoint Mr Richardson on a full-time basis did not follow normal procedures set out by the commission – an independent body tasked with overseeing the appointment of senior civil servants.

Guidelines say that the appointment of a new States chief executive requires a panel of five members – the Chief Minister, a UK chief executive of a local authority and three members of the Appointments Commission, one of whom must be the chairperson.

Sources have told the JEP that while the Chief Minister and the then chair of the Appointments Commission, Brian Curtis, were part of the selection process, the other criteria were not met when Mr Richardson – who had been serving in the role in an acting capacity for several months – was given the job permanently.

Chief Minister Ian Gorst has confirmed that the criteria were not met and explained that that was because of advice received from the Appointments Commission, who said that normal procedure did not need to be followed.

Senior officials claim that Mr Curtis provided that advice and did not inform his colleagues on the commission or have their support – a fact ministers only became aware of after the appointment.

However, Mr Curtis denies that allegation and says that the commission discussed and agreed the advice together – and he says he has the minutes of the meetings to prove it.

He declined to share those minutes with the JEP.

Mr Curtis also said that the process that was eventually followed was ‘so extensive, beyond anything which I’d ever experienced before’.

The alleged disagreement within the commission is said to have contributed to an internal row among the commissioners which led to some threatening to resign –a claim also denied by Mr Curtis.

A number of commissioners and Mr Curtis later stood aside and did not seek reappointment when their terms of office expired.

Dame Janet Paraskeva, a member of the new comission

A new commission has now been formed with Dame Janet Paraskeva – who has extensive experience recruiting in Whitehall – at the helm.

The revelations come after St John Deputy Tracey Vallois lodged a proposition calling for a recent extension of Mr Richardson’s contract to be cancelled and an ‘open and fair’ recruitment process to be undertaken.

She said that there were many questions surrounding the appointment of the chief executive that needed to be answered.

Mr Richardson, who was one of the three people who applied for the role in 2011 and was initially deemed unsuitable, was given the top job on an interim basis following the resignation of former States chief executive Bill Ogley, who controversially left with a £546,337 golden handshake.

He was appointed full-time in 2012 on a three-and-a-half year fixed-term contract, which was extended by a further two-and-a-half years last month.

Speaking to the JEP the Chief Minister said he had 100 per cent confidence in his chief executive.

‘When I became Chief Minister he had been acting satisfactorily as chief executive and the HR department started a conversation with the chairman of the Appointments Commission about the process that needed to be followed,’ he said.

‘And the view coming back from the Appointments Commission was that if you have someone acting and they are doing a satisfactory job the process should be that you review whether that person is appointable against a set of criteria, and that is how we ended up appointing John.’

He added: ‘This is an issue where the Appointments Commission is there to guide about the process and that was the process that they ultimately put as a way forward so that was the process that we followed.’

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