JERSEY was ‘not ready’ for Charlie Parker’s ‘dramatic and pretty dictatorial’ OneGov public sector reforms, the outgoing Treasury Minister has said.
In a wide-ranging interview with the JEP, Susie Pinel stressed that she did not want to criticise Mr Parker – whose controversial three-year stint as government chief executive ended in 2020 following revelations he had accepted a director role in the private sector without proper authorisation – but claimed he failed to understand that the Island could not change as quickly as he wanted.
The OneGov reforms were a five-year plan designed to streamline government departments but which were blighted by unrest among staff and concerns over the number of highly paid consultants being brought in from the UK.
Deputy Pinel also said she was comfortable with the Island’s record levels of debt following the States decision to borrow an unprecedented £1.8 billion.
The borrowing comprises £800 million to fund the new hospital at Overdale, £345 million to refinance pension liabilities and £259 million to pay for the Covid response.
Commenting on Mr Parker’s reign, Deputy Pinel said: ‘I would not want to criticise him but I don’t think the Island was ready for that sort of dramatic and pretty dictatorial change.’
While she appreciated what he was trying to do, ‘what he didn’t understand was that Jersey does not change that quickly,’ she added.
‘And, of course, there was an outcry at the quantity and cost of the amount of consultants he brought in – without, really, general approval. They just came one after the other, after the other, after the other.’
Discussing the level of borrowing, which has raised concerns among some that the Island will be saddled with debt for decades, Deputy Pinel said: ‘I wouldn’t have signed up to this level of debt if I didn’t think it was the right thing to do.
‘We have had huge amounts of advice on it.’
Deputy Pinel claimed that the Island had saved around £3.4bn long term by refinancing some pension and public-sector liabilities.
She defended borrowing in order to stem the liabilities from the Public Employees Contributory Retirement Scheme, noting that the Island’s reserve funds earned interest roughly 4% above that which will be paid on the 30-year loan taken to refinance PECRS and the teachers’ superannuation fund.
The move locked in the refinancing loan at last year’s much lower interest rates without extending the term, she said.
‘I can understand the sense and the reasoning in paying off what everybody said was a very generous pension, PECRS, which is why it was stopped,’ she said.
‘When we have got fantastic reserves in the Strategic Reserve – or, as people call it, the rainy day fund – which is about £1.2 billion, and the Social Security Reserve, which is £2.2 billion, that, of course, is required largely for pensions, and with an ageing demographic, you don’t want to touch that.’
