The catalogue of issues about the ability of departments to manage budgets was raised by Comptroller and Auditor General Chris Swinson, who is employed to scrutinise public spending.
In his report on the five-year-old Public Finances (Jersey) Law, he highlighted problems with the role of the Treasurer of the States, the accounting rules followed by individual departments and forward planning.
He also found that no single individual had final responsibility for expenditure control and that the Treasurer did not have the authority to bring departmental spending and accounting systems into line.
The Public Finances Law rewrote spending rules and set up a system of accounting officers in each department who are formally responsible for spending.
• Tax rises and spending cuts have been announced in the Isle of Man’s budget, which was approved yesterday. Income tax will rise from 18% to 20%, national insurance is going up, but tax relief on mortgages was capped. In all, the budget proposes £36m worth of cuts in all government departments except health and education.
