AN amendment intended to help ensure government financial support to businesses delivers “clear public benefits” through publication of details about who is receiving it and how it is being used was adopted yesterday afternoon.
The proposal by Deputy Alex Curtis was backed by 24 votes in favour, with 21 votes against.
It will amend wording within the Common Strategic Policy document to state that: “Where investment involves government financial support to businesses, we will ensure that public money delivers clear public benefits.
“This will include publishing the recipients, value and purpose of financial support, and the public benefits it is expected to secure.”
It was rejected by the Council of Ministers, which outlined concerns that it would establish “a blanket commitment” within the CSP that “is overly prescriptive” and “fails to recognise legitimate confidentiality considerations”.
Other concerns included the potential for duplicating existing scrutiny and reporting mechanisms for government expenditure and business support schemes, and creation of additional costs “which will outweigh any potential benefits”.
But Deputy Curtis argued it was “a simple principle” that when the government provides taxpayer money to businesses in the form of direct payments like grants, “we should know where it goes, how much was given and for what purpose”.
“This, to me, does not seem problematic,” he told States Members.
“And it represents the bare minimum we should expect when we give out public money to support private enterprise.”
