THE independent States watchdog has taken it upon himself to investigate the circumstances and decisions made about Jersey’s Waterfront.

Having read recent reports about the proposed developments on the Waterfront, Comptroller and Auditor General Chris Swinson has decided to carry out an investigation into decisions made by the Waterfront Enterprise Board.

Mr Swinson (pictured) has been carefully reading reports on the subject and studying documents available on the States of Jersey Greffe website since the controversy unfolded over a week ago.

The Auditor General examines how public bodies spend money, and looks at how best they can achieve value for money by managing their finances to the highest standards. He was appointed by the States of Jersey, under the Public Finances (Jersey) Law in 2005 but remains independent of government.

Some of his terms of reference will be to find out whether proper rules of corporate governance have been established and applied by WEB.

In particular he wants to know what steps were taken to identify potential conflicts of interest and ensure that board decisions were not affected by them and whether the board decisions were based on all of the commercial evidence and advice which they had available.