Jim Diamond, who has assessed legal costs for 35 years, said that an audit of the inquiry costs could ensure tighter controls are put in place for any potential future inquiry.
Mr Diamond has now offered the States his services for free to look at some of the costs of the inquiry – which had an initial budget of £6 million allocated to it.
Meanwhile, St John Constable Chris Taylor has also called for an audit, saying that he has concerns over how and where the £23 million inquiry budget was spent.
Mr Diamond said that he wanted to review two key areas in particular, the money given to Eversheds – the law firm which worked on the inquiry – and a review of the travel expenses which, at £1.5 million, Mr Diamond said were ‘a lot higher than he would have expected’.
The final cost of the inquiry was almost four times the initial figure. This included £10,541,841 on lawyers’ fees and expenses.
Mr Diamond said: ‘My offer to the States is to look at a couple of the key issues of the cost and that offer is for free.
‘I want to provide a cost check on what happened in this case. The cock-up was that the States never made any real strides in controlling the costs.
‘It is startling that we went from an initial budget of £6 million and ended up at over £23 million.
‘The States voted to go for the inquiry initially on the basis of a £6 million budget. If you are going to pluck a figure out of the air then you should be sticking to it.’
Mr Diamond added that he had concerns over the way cost management was handled in Jersey as well as legal fees in the Island and believes an audit of the inquiry could highlight some of the issues.
‘The legal system is wrong and rips people off. I would be a coward if I didn’t stand up and say it is wrong,’ Mr Diamond added.
St John Constable Chris Taylor also backed calls for an audit.
He said: ‘Mr Diamond is a very well respected costs lawyer. I think we need somebody like him to look at how the £23 million has been spent.
‘Hopefully, this may be an area that the Public Accounts Committee will be looking at.’
Last month, the inquiry released its long-awaited report and made a string of recommendations which included creating the post of Children’s Commissioner. Chief Minister Ian Gorst has said that he is committed to implementing the recommendations in full.
