THE announcement of the successful bidder for Jersey and Guernsey’s passenger and freight ferry services could be slightly delayed after a senior civil servant was forced to step away from the selection process.
The Economy Department’s chief officer, Richard Corrigan, made an “inadvertent mistake”, the government has said, when he indicated a preference for DFDS in a Facebook poll. The Danish shipping giant is vying with incumbent Condor Ferries for the contract while Irish Ferries is also understood to have submitted a bid.
Answering an urgent question in the States Assembly this week, Economic Development Minister Kirsten Morel said the handover to a new senior reporting officer could result in a short delay in confirming the successful bidder, but that this would probably be a “matter of days, not any longer”.
A decision is expected this month, after Deputy Morel said officers would make “an objective, evidence-based recommendation to me and my counterpart in Guernsey for final political approval in October”.
But a “straw poll” by one member of the Condor Ferries User Group, a 10,400-strong Facebook forum where Islanders share information and opinions about the operator, sparked doubts over the objectivity of Mr Corrigan in relation to the tender process after he selected DFDS.
Condor and majority shareholder Brittany Ferries took 60% of the nearly 600 votes, while DFDS had a 39% share, with Mr Corrigan among the 200 people who backed them.
