The use of interim consultants within Jersey’s government has come under scrutiny a number of times as sweeping reforms are being introduced with the aim of producing savings and efficiencies.
During States questions, Deputy Mike Higgins questioned Senator Le Fondré on whether there were any failings in appointing interim consultants in the Health and Community Services Department.
In response he said there were no issues with the appointments, and they were for 13 weeks of work in six months on governance risk issues within health.
Senator Le Fondré was also asked whether the positions were advertised but he said he could not answer and would need to look into it. Later during questions he was asked how many interim consultants remained, and he said only ten remained, down from 37 at the end of 2017.
Senator Kristina Moore also further questioned the Chief Minister, who stated that if people want change, then these people were needed to deliver that change.
He said: ‘These are specialist people coming on board to cover things and look to change an organisation that needs changing.
‘We can do it internally, with people who are making the changes who are changing themselves.
‘We have tried to do that before and it went wrong. We have to bring in the best specialists to bring in change.’
Last week former Chief Minister and current External Relations Minister Ian Gorst said he would have preferred to use fewer consultants to deliver reforms of the public sector under the OneGov programme.
But Senator Le Fondré said he was confident and clear that the expenditure on consultants was outweighed by the efficiencies that they were making.
He added: ‘If Members support change, and I have always been in favour of change, we can bring in people in the short term to sort this.
‘Or we have people doing their job, then making changes at the side of a desk, and that doesn’t work.
‘I am clear that the efficiency benefits outweigh the salaries.
‘We have been calling for it for years, we are in the middle of it and we should get behind it and support it.’
