QUESTIONS surround the future of one of Jersey’s highest-paid civil servants after the government declined to answer questions about the status of his role.
Richard Corrigan, the government’s chief officer for the Economy Department, is currently on annual leave, the JEP understands. It has been confirmed that his functions have not been formally delegated to another senior official.
But speculation is mounting that a shake-up is planned, with other senior civil servants reportedly primed to absorb key features of the portfolio currently held by Mr Corrigan.
When contacted by the JEP, the government said it would not comment on individual employment matters.
It also declined to answer specific questions about whether any exit arrangements or payments were being discussed, and refused to confirm succession and interim recruitment arrangements within the department.
Mr Corrigan is one of the government’s most senior – and highest-paid – officials, with the States Annual Report and Accounts 2025 putting it at between £270,000 and £275,000.
It follows an eventful period at the helm of the Economy Department, including a high-profile controversy during the procurement process for Jersey’s long-term ferry operator.
In October 2024, Mr Corrigan stepped away from the ferry tender after it emerged that he had voted for DFDS in a Facebook poll asking users which company they wanted to win the contract. He had also previously congratulated the Danish ferry company on LinkedIn before the procurement process officially opened.
Then-Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel subsequently defended the incident as a “blunder” rather than evidence of bias, saying Mr Corrigan had made an error and “immediately recused himself”.
But emails subsequently released under Freedom of Information legislation revealed Mr Corrigan had privately told ministers he felt “badly let down” by the government’s handling of the fallout.
He complained that the failure to establish a “clear narrative” with the media had allowed speculation that his recusal was responsible for delays in the ferry decision and said the cumulative impact had affected his personal wellbeing.
The ferry saga was not Mr Corrigan’s first brush with controversy during a government career stretching back almost a decade.
In 2020, he apologised following criticism of a social-media exchange with a Jersey-based Australian businessman, which was branded offensive by FeelUnique founder Aaron Chatterley and then-backbencher Deputy Morel, who described the comment as “totally inappropriate from a senior civil servant”.
Mr Corrigan subsequently said: “No offence was intended in the alliteration and apologies to you and others for any taken.”
The same year, Mr Corrigan became embroiled in a heated Scrutiny hearing concerning the break-up of the Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities.
A letter he had written setting out concerns about CICRA was sent only in hard copy and apparently went unanswered before eventually being found behind the regulator’s lobby letterbox months later. Its existence prompted a tense exchange after Scrutiny produced a copy during a hearing.
Mr Corrigan joined the government after serving as deputy chief executive of Jersey Finance and was appointed chief officer responsible for financial services, digital and competition in 2017.
He was subsequently made group director for Financial Services and Digital Economy during former chief executive Charlie Parker’s ‘One Government’ restructuring in 2018.
His responsibilities have since expanded considerably, with the Department for the Economy now responsible for areas ranging from financial services and economic policy to tourism, retail, digital, agriculture, fisheries, aviation, maritime, sport, culture and the arts.
Its responsibilities also include supporting the diversification of Jersey’s economy, protecting and developing the finance industry’s reputation, overseeing arm’s-length organisations, encouraging inward investment and providing economic advice to ministers and the States Assembly.
Mr Corrigan remains listed on the government’s website as the department’s chief officer.
The only other officials named as members of its senior management team are chief economic advisor Thomas Holvey – also responsible for ‘competition and IP’, according to a June 2026 Government Structure chart – and director of Financial and Professional Services Helen De La Cour.
The JEP understands that the pair could be in line to absorb significant elements of Mr Corrigan’s existing responsibilities as part of a potential restructuring.
Any change comes at a time of wider transition for the department following June’s election.
