Karen McConnell, who steps down at the end of this month after spending the past five years inspecting and proposing improvements to its mechanics, said there were key deficiencies in how the Island’s government ran, echoing recent criticisms made by its chief executive Charlie Parker.
After being appointed in 2012 to investigate corporate governance in the-
then States of Jersey, before taking on the role of CAG two years later, she quickly found that staff were not following compliance guidelines but in certain cases that was because the rules were contradictory.
‘One of the things I had to understand was how the States of Jersey was supposed to work and what was happening in practice,’ she said.
‘When I first arrived, what became clear was that what was happening in practice was not what was meant to be happening. People were not doing what they were meant to be doing but it was not necessarily their fault.
‘Part of it was to do with the framework in which they were operating. When I did a report on financial directions I found that some of the directions were contradictory in their nature. So even if you had individuals who wanted to comply, they would have problems doing so.’
Mrs McConnell said that as her
work progressed, she found the public sector to be a fragmented organisation governed by ‘silos’ with varying work cultures and a lack of focus on serving Islanders.
‘The tone of an organisation comes from the top and if you have an silo with an individual at the top with a certain style then that tends to flow through the organisation,’ she said. ‘So what you actually got was different cultures operating in different
departments. I have seen it elsewhere in other organisations and, when it
happens, an organisation can be quite fragmented.
‘When it comes to public services, they are received by individuals and need to be joined up. When they are fragmented it really becomes quite difficult to interact with them.
‘You have to focus on the individuals who receive services and not on your own organisation. It’s about turning stuff on its head.’
She added that the public sector was ‘hierarchical’ in the way it was being managed.
‘There’s nothing wrong with tradition – traditions are really important and good for a community,’ she said.
‘It’s more about behaviours and how the organisation ticks. Much more these days it is about being less hierarchical and empowering people.
Another of her key causes of concern was the government’s ‘old and clunky’ IT systems, such as the JD Edwards accountancy programme.
‘If you are designing any form of IT system, you can’t just replace it within a culture where the culture isn’t the one you are looking for. The system will echo the culture,’ she said. ‘For example, if you look at the basics of JD Edwards, it was introduced in a silo-based way with different
coding mechanisms in different departments so even if you wanted to join things up, it was much much more difficult for you.
‘If you are going to change these systems you need to change the culture around them so that you have the built-in flexibility that you need to move forward.’
She added that an ‘awful lot of investment’ was needed for the necessary improvement in working culture and IT systems.
