Hugh McGarel-Groves who the Minister says is providing an invaluable service at the Treasury
THE man employed by the States to save the Island money is being paid nearly £1,000 a day and is staying at one of the most luxurious Island hotels, the JEP can reveal.
As well as his daily rate, temporary Treasurer of the States Hugh McGarel-Groves also gets £90 a day subsistence allowance, which helps to pay for his four-nights-a-week stay at L’Horizon Hotel in St Brelade. Rates at the hotel can reach £170 a night for a double room.
• Find out how Treasury Minister Philip Ozouf justifies the appointment in today’s JEP.
Article posted on 9th July, 2010 - 3.00pm
56 Article Comments
Depending on how effective he is at saving money this may well be good value.
The assumption from most who post on this forum will be that this is another outrage – the JEP must love headlines like this.
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£1,000 a day, taking account that there are no ancillary pension, holiday, redundancy cost is very reasonable. A lot less than we pay Chief Executive to the States to over inflate our civil service!
Money well spent if Hugh McGarel-Groves delivers and the States assembly acts on his recommendations.
A big if and ask, but then Jersey regularly manages to waste millions on rampant budgets! Easy pickings for competent management.
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if ouzof has anything to do with it money will always be wasted he does not live in the real world all he has to do to save money is read the jep online comments on how to save money it is not hard even for him
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Surely this is what Philip Ozouf should be doing as Treasury Minister, otherwise what is the point of him being in the role. If he can’t do the job then resign and get someone else that can. The states are becoming a bigger and bigger joke everyday.
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Outrageous!!! How can these states follies keep going on when they are constantly asking us tax payers to prepare for belt tightening!! Sometimes their ineptitude beggars belief…Probably been answered but why is Ian Black not doing the job anyway?
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Thats just typical states overspending,anyone or should i say everyone in JERSEY can tell how our goverment waste money and how to save it but they never listen even the report from this chap won`t make a blind bit of difference (except to our pockets)the island has gone to pot time to move on one thinks.the ship is sinking FAST
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Just asking members of the public their views would have cost nothing. Many people write in to the forum with very well thought out ideas.
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Nice work if you can get it!
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Depending on his contract would depend on value for money..
What is his incentive to actually get the job done? Is there a time limit and penalties associated or is it the usual bland States contract to throw money at people.
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if this chap comes up with the goods, and those who should listen to him , act as told, i my eye it would be cash well spent, we will have to wait and see.
andy (6) as a local born chap,i would bail out with a bucket, after i have built a raft, and would like to be the one to turn the light out, and enjoy a less monied crowded island.
bernard(7) quite true, and we are free of fees,
other than scrutiny, we have no input.
the very fact that there was a low turn out to the talk on tax, should not be read, as we are happy with our lot.
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Why do we have a deputy treasurer if not to fill in when the treasurer is not available? The powers obviously do not think highly enough of the deputy if they have brought in someone over his head for the period of time Black is not there….
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Ozouf lives in “Spinworld” where money is like that used in monopoly. He is also in charge of all our hard earned cash, a danger to the island and all its inhabitants. Will someone remove him please before it’s too late. Red alert !
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outrageous spending this amount of money-they must have a stash somewhere and are not telling us about it!
Surely someone from jersey could have sorted this a lot cheaper.
Why bother going to colleges and universities if they can,t even produce one homegrown egghead?
The mind boggles!
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Cheap as chips if you ask me, lets hope he comes up with the savings we all need, and hope even more that the states actually do something about it when he does!!
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The L’Horizon is the ‘prefered’ hotel of Jersey money wasters (aka the states) its where Lenny Harper put the uk dog handlers up……come to sunny Jersey where wasting the tax payers money is not a problem!…..I’m SICK SICK SICK of this carry one, I work bl**dy hard and pay a fortune in tax only to have it flushed down the toilet by the states!!!!
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The bizarre thing is they are making cuts of 2% in some places while expenditure is being increased by more than that elsewhere.
More money is being spent on legal fees while school milk might but probably won’t be cut.
Soon we will start the protracted wrangling over how to put up taxes.
But at least it keeps them out of the wet during the winter days
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THE man employed by the States to save the Island money IS you Mr Osouf. So why squander tax payers money to employ someone else to do it for you?
Start doing your job, or give Mr McGarel-Groves the full time, permanent posting and be on your way.
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I totaly agree with No4, Ozouf should be doing the job, if he can’t, sack him. No5, Ian Black is taking the blame for Le Sueur/Ozouf cock-up with millions of pounds lost in incenerator.
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£90.00 per day for food! is it gold plated??!!! who on earth spends £90.00 per day on food. Yes Jersey has become very expensive and shopping bills have gone up loads but I bet the basic wage doesn’t allow the average family to spend £90.00 per week on shopping let alone per day. I am a working single mum of 2 and I am lucky if I can spend that amount every 2 weeks!!! Why is he being given this much on top of accomodation which must include breakfast and perhaps an evening meal?. OK pay the bloke a decent wage if he does a good job that obviously needs doing but States of Jersey get a grip please!!!!
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Once again the inept Ministers penalise the employed. Ozouf is an absolute danger to the Island and meglamaniac comes to mind.If those in the States of Jersey do not see this,then its downhill all the way.
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We know where to go now to pelt him with eggs!! as usual the goverment is extracting the urine!
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Give me £1000 for 1 day’s work, I’ll come to a states sitting and tell them all to their face EXACTLY how to save millions of pounds a year. It would only take a couple of minutes and a few choice words!
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Why is he staying at the L’Horizon and not somewhere cheaper? And I guess we are also paying his cab fares to and from there?
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Yet again the Island ‘Elite’ fail. Why does it always take someone from off the Island to tell the un-listening government what any joe-average could tell them? The way the Rock has been mis-managed for so long is a disgrace.
It wont be long before this place is bankrupt, begging to bailed out by the UK, and to be honest it would make sense.
At least then prices would be sensible, houses affordable and excessive profiteering over.
Jersey will become similar to the Isle of Wight, but with less going on.
The alarm bells have been ringing for years, but sadly various and numerous governments have not heard them whilst their collective heads have been stuck in the sand.
I fear it maybe too late, and like many others before me my family and I will probably move elsewhere before long.
The transient migrant population will continue, fulfilling the requirements of the finance industry, but in time there will be very few true Jersey families left here brining up their children.
A sad epitaph to a once wonderful Island.
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Why did Mr.Black go off sick…while in a hail of criticism over the Euro debacle…we have accountants pouring out of our ears,we have treasury people all on the gravy train,we have an auditor General,what has this guy got that is so precious..and why do we as an international Finance centre seem to be so woefully inadequate at managing our money..it would not encourage me to put money here if the island can not tie it’s own shoelaces financially,what the heel is going on and which politician is responsible and come on comment.we pay you don’t dare to keep us in the dark.
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If my calculations are correct (and i dont claim to be a financial whizz-kid worthy of staying at the L’Horizon at taxpayers expense!) then i make it … 5 days a week for the supposed 6 month contract at £1000 per day = £130,000 … plus £90 per day for 6 months = £16,380 gives a nice grand total of £146,380 for 6 months work!! That would be £292,760 per year!! Now … that IS a wage!! Even makes that Waterfront director wage look decidedly cheap!
Why arent our supposed high-class politicians and over-paid top civil servants able to do this work themselves so saving us nearly £150,000? What do we pay you all for?
Its an absolute disgrace on so many levels but definitely not a surprise anymore!
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Irony has never lacked humour as much as this.
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Most off my mates have left the island, not long until I join them
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Dolores,
One correction. The deficit of £50 million is not caused by the recession as you write; it is the consequence of the 0/10 tax policy. The failure of that policy is now undermining state revenues and government is not prepared to tax the wealthy to make up the deficit.
Truly, the government is hoist with its own petard. Commited to running a low tax regime, is proving so difficult that government finds it can no longer fund essential state functions. Therein lies the central paradox.
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Pip has never made money himself all family inherited but seems to enjoy throwing it around too easilky,very like Mandleson all spin & no substance.Speaking with a tourist couple yesterday that have a son that works @ senior level in Treasury @ Whitehall & he said that the Labour Government were spending money at a rate that would bankrupt the country,seems we have the same ambition.
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If this man saves £m’s then money well spent. Although I do wonder at the money wasted by all States Departments – who seem to solve every problem by bringing in consultants to do the work we pay them to do.
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If he is only staying at the L’Horizon four nights a week, I take it we are also paying for him to fly home for the weekend.
The mind boggles.
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rather predictable comments.
he is paid £90 a day as an expense allowance and out of this he has to make his own arrangements for meals and accomodation.He has chosed to spend his money at the l’horizon, it’s his choice. many people here on business stay there and most are not as senior as the stand-in states treasurer.
The amount he is paid £950/day is also reasonable for the type of contract, and probably works out less than the cost of similar permanent states employees (the salary+ benefits(an additional 60%) divided by actual days worked per annun.
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If Senator Ozouf can be dangerous now just wait until he is elected Chief Minister next November.
Come on you know the line of succession is already fixed!
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£1,000 a day to tell us how to save money, not really a good deal, the man in the street could tell us how to save money.
What is Senator Ozouf doing? I though that was his job, this man will take us into obscurity.
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Wouldn’t this pay for two air traffic controllers per day to train on the new software?
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While people in Jersey are living with less then £250 per week, this so called Minister Ozouf is wasting all our money in another outrage.
Why is this person not staying in a Guest House at £30 per night?
Why does he have a meal allowance with a salary of £950 a DAY?
Why is Ozouf not doing the Job he’s been elected for? If he is unable to do it then take some of his money back to pay someone that can dot it.
Jersey is becoming a joke, everyone knows!
Senator we the public would like you to resin immediately
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Been giving this some thought..let us say Ozouf is right and the Treasury has been dysfunctional…o.k.and further assume this new guy is really hot and can sort it…we do not then need to keep the one who is on the sick or his assistants, and indeed if the new health chief needs four new managers as the ones there according to her are aren’t up to the job…so be it..But at the expense of the dysfunctional ones, not as extras…now here is usually where the rub comes as the useless staff get what I call a sideways promotion or let out the side door with a payoff,which remains a secret even though it is mine and your money, at this juncture you would think a politician would reassure the public that he would sort it…Oh no…then they bleat that we do not understand and judge them harshly..it’s because of the lies and hypocrisy..when Oh when will they learn how to be honest and also On message..if he came out and said .” found some dead wood,they’ve been given the chop and this new one will make it work or suffer the same fate…public confidence would be restored very quickly…but untill they get honest and stop squandering our money then having to Tax even further to fund their inneptitude..they can expect to take the flak right in the face.
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Well said truthseeker.
We have a bloated civil services because of the “job for life” attitude. Until the Politicians change the employment contracts in the public sector to mirror those of the private sector the only way we will be able to get new competent management in place is to move sideways the incompetents to create a position for a more competent person (as per Health Dept. I feel sorry for the new Chief at Health having to tolerate all the failed managers (see Verita Report). I bet she wishes she had the power to sack them all and stat again.)
So whose fault is it – States Employment Board for allowing incompetent managers to stay employed.
What can be done about it? The States Assembly to change the employment contracts the States Employment Board use to include the provision for easy/legal procedural dismissal because of incompetence.
But what about the Unions I here you cry? Simple really – by supporting incompetence the Unions are actually undermining the “respected” position they have in society.
Too many people on here just complain – let us also use this forum to give solutions.
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At this rate I certainly hope the guy comes up with the goods on savings. You can’t blame him for taking the money if its offered, I just wonder if we couldn’t have found a good Accountant locally to do the job for half the price – after all we are a huge finance centre so there must be someone out there. What I don’t like is the inference that everyone in the Treasury is no good – there are lots of very good and dedicated people working in there against a background of constant criticism.
I bet we see more and more UK bods coming over to fill the top jobs and the joke there is that they come from a broken system and then tell us how to fix ours. You couldn’t write a comedy sketch any better than this one eh??
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I am employed as a care assistant,I care for people and I think I do quite a good job.Senator Ozouf is employed as a Treasury Minister,answers on a postcard please!
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Well why are we not surprised??????????? Typical states, run by buisness people for buisness people!!! The ordinary beans, as we are, don’t get a say. No wonder the ‘books’ are such a mess.
If they can afford to pay him such an outrageous sum for pie in the sky. Then why not up the old age pension?
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When I originally read this article I genuinely thought it was an April fool however we are in July so this is for real.
I f this chap is here to help us save money the top of his list item should read “FIRE ME”. Members of the public who write on this site would do the job for a fraction of the amount. These are members of the public who are telling the States daily how to cut back.This salary is
obscene.
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The reason why this man is from the UK is because no one in Jersey qualified for the job would do it for £1000 a day, and I don’t blame them.
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#1 Phil, the point is that there shouldn’t be any need for some outsider to tell the island how to cut costs because those in charge shouldn’t have been frittering away our money in the first place. And even if the wage itself seems okay to you (the person is being ‘inconvenienced’ after all) there is no way that a £90-per-day subsistence allowance can be justified. Of course, if it is offered it will be used though!
If the States truly want to know how to cut costs they need to ask the staff first! In the States ask the secretaries and admin staff, in the schools ask the teachers, in the hospitals ask the nurses. Then work upwards (in ‘rank’) from there. People already have the answers to this question, the States just aren’t listening and are throwing money away on one man’s salary!
I doubt anyone will be surprised when this man’s great ideas for saving money come out.
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43.kate – You genuinely thought it was an April fool??? Or did you use the word ‘genuinely’ for effect??
45.leah holmes – I agree, I think you made a good point about asking admin staff etc. From the bottom of the structure upwards. They won’t have all the answers but I bet they could develop some good ideas. And that’s what’s needed, some proper thought process rather than glib/sweeping statements of the ’sack the lot of ‘em’ variety.
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Leah 45 – But we know what the states and COM will decide.
The man will come up with brilliant ideas to save tens of millions and the COM will sit there and say “your not cutting my budget/headcount/perks/salary etc” and either water it down or can it completely.
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Here’s another angle,the States are hyper twitchy about how we are percieved in the world,hence Frank Walker’s wonderful comment to SS on National T.V. “You are trying to shaft us internationally” wonder which P.R. advisor here got him to say that.? So here we are a centre of Financial excellence and we can’t find our own backside with both hands in financial matters,what sort of message to the world is that?,and as a place with more financial workers per capita than you could throw a stick at we are in the crap financially and can not manage our own purse or our civil service…yet the Parishes are in the black and do not seem to have all these problems…Ahh but wait a mo…they don’t have all them civil servants bleeding their coffers dry either…solution = very serious pruning and taking back control,cut the head off the snake..job done.
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#47 So true, sad, but very true
And this story certainly warrants your moniker!
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Lets not forget whilst we are paying £1000 per day we are still paying Ian Black who should be doing the job, but he’s off ill and has been for 6 months.
You couldn’t make this up and hope to get away with it, unless your a senior civil servant working for the States of Jersey.
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come on, are any of us realy surprised, no wonder this island is like it is when we let the people we vote in make stupid decisions like this to get somebody in to “save our lsland”, if they didnt waste money in the first place on so many wasteful enterprises over here we wouldnt need PAY somebody to SAVE OUR ISLAND!!!
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Truthseeker @ 48: If the cuts you are talking about are undertaken who is going to run the island? It is an unrealistic prospect. The key is to investigate benefits fraud, increase GST, and increase the Parish Rates proportion which goes to the States, as well as look at realistic spending cuts – for example, cut the funding for Battle of Flowers and Battle of Britain until we can afford it!
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52.O.K.The people who should run the island are the ones originally hired to do so,but they have dropped the ball badly,so we need to cut out all the dead wood and layers of management,many were hired to do a job and immediately got people in under them to shoulder the burden of what they themselves had been hired to do..or the other ploy was get in experts to advise…who would morph into yet another full time employee in no time..so we ended up with layers of people for what was a one person job..eg:we have about 9 beach cleaners,and six management to manage them..!multiply that many times in many departments and there you have it .which is why David Cameron is going for a 45% reduction of managerial layers in the U.K. health sector,he knows that piddling about with 10/15% cuts is just nibbling round the edges and that in 12 months or so or when no one is looking they just drift back into their old bad ways,He seems determined to avert that and we should follow..the Condems have made enormous strides in a matter of weeks and are determined to reverse the Blairite cancer that the country and us have been in the grip of..it is time for real change,as the tax and spend model would if allowed, bankrupt us entirely..as we speak no one will confirm or deny the existence of the rainy day fund..and you trust these people.sheesh.
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See you magical mystery voters who placed a X against Mr Ozouf name at the last election, hide your heads in shame or clog his email inbox and telephone with angry letters and calls to stop his second biggest mistake. First one being the incinerator debacle. Its looking very pretty on our coastline!!?? Mr Cohen anything to add?
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Hotel L’Horizon,,£950 a day plus 90 quid for a sandwich…taxi’s to and from…Celebrity Lifestyle anyone…The Govt do not know HOW to stop spending.
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The student asked ‘What is the most expensive thing in the world?’ and Buddha say ‘the temporary Treasurer of the States’. ‘But why is the temporary Treasurer of the States the most expensive thing in the world?’ inquired the student. ‘Because no-one can put a price on him’, Buddha answered.
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