- Ministers and their assistants spent almost £80,000 in 2014 on travel, accommodation and entertainment
- The highest spender was Senator Philip Ozouf, followed by Chief Minister Ian Gorst
- Who spent what? Find out below
- Do you think Ministers should be spending less on travel, accommodation and expenses? Take part in our poll
MINISTERS and assistant ministers spent a total of £78,468 last year on travel, accommodation and entertainment, according to a report from the Chief Minister’s Department.
The highest-spending minister was Senator Philip Ozouf, who spent £27,273 – £16,092 on travel and accommodation and £484 on entertainment in his former position of Treasury Minister – plus a further £10,697 in his Assistant Chief Minister’s role.
- Senator Philip Ozouf – £27,273 (£16,092 on travel and accommodation and £484 on entertainment in his former position of Treasury Minister, plus a further £10,697 in his Assistant Chief Ministers role)
- Ian Gorst (Chief Minister) – £15,414
- Sir Philip Bailhache (External Relations Minister) – £729 on entertainment and £12,548 on travel and accommodation
- Alan Maclean (Economic Development Minister, now Treasury Minister) – £10,236
- Rob Duhamel (Environment Minster) – £2,998
- James Baker (Assistant Economic Development Minister) – £2,647
- Deputy Rod Bryans (Assistant Education Minister to 6 November, and now Minister) – £2,050
- Paul Routier (Assistant Chief Minister) – £2,030
The next biggest spender was Chief Minister Ian Gorst, whose travel and accommodation cost the public purse £15,414.
External Relations Minister Sir Philip Bailhache spent £729 on entertainment and £12,548 on travel and accommodation, while then Economic Development Minister (now Treasury Minister) Alan Maclean’s bills came to £10,236.
Other ministers with annual expenses over £2,000 included Assistant Chief Minister Paul Routier (£2,030), Assistant Economic Development Minister James Baker (£2,647), Environment Minster Rob Duhamel (£2,998) and Deputy Rod Bryans (Assistant Education Minister to 6 November, and now Minister), £2,050.
The information is presented to the States on an annual basis in accordance with a 2006 request put to the Chief Minister of the day, Frank Walker, to align the States code of conduct for ministers with the UK code of conduct, which requires the government to publish an annual list of all ministerial overseas travel and the total cost.
However, the amount spent on behalf of ministers falls some way short of the total departmental expenditure on travel and accommodation expenses, which in 2012 amounted to £2.6m, in 2013 £2.8m, and from 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014 came to £2.2m – upwards of £7 million over the three-year period following the November 2011 elections.
Those figures, obtained by the JEP following a Freedom of Information request, showed that Health was the biggest-spending department in terms of travel and accommodation costs, followed by Home Affairs, Economic Development, Education and External Relations.
In a report issued last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General, Karen McConnell, raised concerns about the lack of control within States departments over internal spending on items such as travel, accommodation and the use of consultants.
She concluded that ‘shorter, sharper, more accessible financial directions, supported by training, would improve the design and operation of the States’ system of internal control’.
A subsequent review by the Public Accounts Committee in April this year found that although all of the recommendations had been accepted by the then Treasury Minister, work to implement those recommendations had not yet started ‘in earnest’.
