A DEPUTY has been asked to send a letter of apology for breaching the code of conduct for States Members when he inadvertently copied the wrong government employee into a complaint email.
St Helier Deputy Mike Higgins made a complaint last year regarding the States principal youth officer, Mark Capern, to the Chief Minister, copying in other addresses including one he thought belonged to interim chief executive Paul Martin, but which was for another government employee with the same name.
By forwarding the complaint to ‘an individual who had no possible legitimate interest in receiving the information’, Deputy Higgins was found to have breached article eight of the code on access to confidential information by the Commissioner for Standards, Paul Kernaghan.
A second part of Mr Capern’s complaint related to a meeting of the First Tower Community Association in September last year, when the principal youth officer said Deputy Higgins publicly announced that he had submitted a complaint against Mr Capern, ‘before he had told him’ and ‘without having advised him in advance that he intended to do so’, according to a subsequent report by the Privileges and Procedures Committee released this week, which is tasked with acting on any breaches of the code of conduct.
It was disputed whether Deputy Higgins used Mr Capern’s name or job titleduring the meeting, but Mr Kernaghan concluded that ‘even using job titles’ this had breached article six of the code onpublic comments regarding a States employee or officer.
Mr Kernaghan did not recommend any disciplinary action for the breach of article eight, but instead suggested a personal letter of apology from Deputy Higgins to Mr Capern, and he did not make a recommendation for the breach of article six: instead highlighting ‘that the employment arrangements presided over by the States must afford employees adequate protections and deliver an environment which treats them with respect and courtesy’.
Deputy Higgins met PPC in December last year, following the Commissioner for Standards’ investigation. He acknowledged that he had copied the letter of complaint to the wrong person and apologised for the error, according to PPC’s report, which accepted both the Commissioner’s findings.
PPC stated that Deputy Higgins did not dispute the email error and had apologised for it, but added: ‘The committee believes this is a timely opportunity to remind Members to be vigilant when emailing any recipient and to ensure only those who have a legitimate reason to receive correspondence do so.’
During the meeting, Deputy Higgins maintained that he used only officers’ job titles at the First Tower meeting.
However, PPC said that the Deputy was still in breach of the code and formally requested that Deputy Higgins write a personal letter of apology to Mr Capern, but added that no further action was necessary.
