Opera House contractor tops 2024 Government supplier list

CONSTRUCTION firm Ashbe was the Government’s biggest single supplier last year – being paid £11.5m for its work refurbishing the Opera House.

£246.6m of taxpayers’ money was spent on the Government’s top 100 suppliers last year, which was a £11m, or 4%, decline on 2023’s £257.5m total.

Although a building firm received the most money, the biggest supply sector was care and heath services, comprising 17% of the total, or £42.5m.

A greater percentage the £246.3m of Government funds spent last year on its leading suppliers stayed in Jersey than the year before. Almost 60% of money went to Jersey-based suppliers – including utilities, IT providers, building contractors, charities, recruiters and consultants – while just over 40% went overseas, mainly to UK firms.

This compares to 52% of money staying in Jersey in 2023.

However, looking back to 2022, the total supplier spend then was just £218.6m, with 62% of that money going to Jersey-based entities.

These shifting percentages are influenced by the projects that fall within each particular year – for instance, the Opera House refurbishment was a big capital project last year, whereas in 2023 it was a major Government IT upgrade, which went to a UK firm.

The Government has published a ‘Top 100 suppliers’ report since 2020, when it spent £231m.

Behind Ashbe, the second biggest supplier last year was Family Nursing and Home Care (£10.2m), followed by Guernsey-based Insurance Corporation of the Channel Islands (£9.4m), Jersey Electricity (£7.9m) UK-based locum doctor agency Holt Doctors (£7.7m) and University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust (£7.4m).

Other examples of supplier spend included:

Ferry firm DFDS, which was paid £4.5m in 2024 (the 15th biggest supplier) to provide contingency vessels following concerns about the viability of Condor.

£3m on hotel accommodation in the UK (21 on the top 100 list).

The Parish of St Helier was paid £3m (22 on the list).

Airline Blue Islands was paid £1.7m for flights provided in 2024 (51).

In a report accompanying the list, the Government said that efforts to curb spending on consultants was bearing fruit, with a reduction in the amount of taxpayers’ funds attributed to ‘consultancy services, contingent labour and outsourced business’.

Last year, the Government spent £23.2m on ‘management consultancy services’, which was 9.4% of the total going to the top 100 suppliers. In 2023, £22.5m was spent on the category, 18.3% of the total.

The top ten suppliers by expenditure in 2024 were: