Top civil servants under fire
Wednesday 4th February 2009, 3:00PM GMT.
THE integrity and competence of some of the Island’s top civil servants were called into question in the States yesterday as ministers came under sustained attack from backbenchers.
Ministers found themselves in the firing line both for the handling of the suspension of police chief Graham Power and the way in which senior officers at Health allegedly acted in the wake of the death of nurse Elizabeth Rourke
The Chief Minister was forced to admit that States chief executive Bill Ogley – the most senior civil servant – had destroyed hand-written minutes of the meeting to suspend the police chief before Mr Power had agreed that they were accurate.
Senator Le Sueur told the States yesterday that a typed transcript had been made from the notes before they were thrown in the bin. The transcript was subsequently signed off by the then Home Affairs Minister, Andrew Lewis, but without the original notes being shown to the police chief.
• Picture: Bill Ogley
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I fear this is the tip of the iceberg the voting public will see. Again. Secret Debates, Ballots and decisions affecting us all carried out behind closed doors. Who is running the Island and for who’s gain?
A real transparent Government Mr CM and others. Or not. We are drip fed enough information to keep us happy / unhappy. Delete as applicable.
Carry on the good work!
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Destroyed the hand written minutes eh ?
How convenient.
Could someone tell me why this man is still in the employment of The States ?
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Are we having a laugh here this is just crazy..
rs
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They may be under fire but when will they be FIRED for incompetence!!!!!
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In the Simon Belwood case civil servants in the HR department and higher echelons of power were found by the tribunal not to have handled Mr Bellwoods suspension and subsequent sacking in accordance with the Employment Jersey Law ( 2003 ) that is fact.
The former chief minister acknowledged that there were failings in that particular case, assurances were given that in future policy would be adhered to, that is fact.
I find it quite unbeleivable therefore that Mr Power was treated in such a shabby manner, to raise a file note of a meeting between three parties and then get it signed off by only two of them in my opinion is a flagrant abuse of power and clearly not in accordance with HR procedures.
Mr Power has a record of service that I beleive is unblemished indeed I also beleive that his dedication and hard work has led to an award from the Queen,he should not have been treated in such a manner and as a consequence have his career and reputation in tatters.
We taxpayers foot the 200k plus salary that Mr Ogley enjoys, and future taxpayers will for many years foot his final salary pension. Is it therefore to much to ask that he does his job without fear or favour, and acts in accordance with the laws of this island.
The cases to which I have referred are high profile, I question how other employees have been treated when coming before the kangaroo courts of Jerseys civil servants.
I also quesion that if a less senior officer had called a meeting without appropriate warning, had not given that employee the right to invite a representative to attend the meeting and had then destroyed a handwritten note of the said meeting – would that officer still be in employment?
With regards to the cosy relationship that exists between our politicians it is fair to say that the tail appears to be wagging the dog!
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We can guess where this is going to end.
Six figure sum, maybe in excess of £250,000 in full and final settlement of Mr Power’s claims. No one is to blame, total confidence in the management team who acted for the best at all times…
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I’m sorry, but it is not possible for a man of his experience to have made the mistake of destroying notes of such an important meeting without getting at least a type written draft agreed and signed by all parties present at the meeting. This is basic administration, that even a junior would be aware of. One must seriously question his competence to act as the Senior Civil Servant in Jersey, or draw our own conclusions.
Also, didn’t Andrew Lewis ask Ogley whether Power had agreed the minutes before being so hasty in stating that everything was 100% in order?
This whole matter stinks.
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As I understood it, the job of politicians is to be responsible to the electorate for the good governance of a community. The civil servants are there to carry out the orders of the politicians and to advise as necessary. Civil servants are not normally sacked unless they can be shown to have acted without orders and to have done something terribly wrong off their own bat, which may well be the case here because destroying original evidence in a highly politicised and contentious process such as sacking a Police Chief is not done lightly by anyone but a fool. It is the Minister in charge who should be taking responsibility and standing down until the findings of a full independent inquiry vindicates him or her, when he/she can stand for re-election. At least that’s how it works in democracies.
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why oh why is Bill O still working for us , Joe Public, who are his wages….a shredder is a lot cheaper to buy…if fact I will donate one to the states if they want one!!!!!
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It is slowly getting through to the general public that Jersey is being governed, to some extent, by senior civil servants who disseminate misinformation on a regular basis and, to some extent, by their poodle politicians who don’t have either the brains or the strength of character to stand up to them.
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Excellent reporting in tonight’s paper.
You have really exposed some of the fundamental problems in the civil service in Jersey.
They seem to make up policy and procedure as they go along, in this case leaving the Chief Minister in the most difficult position of having to say that policy is not written down!
How much are these civil servants paid?
Surely something as important as record keeping about senior officers disciplinary process should be clear? And if not, they should not be misleading Ministers in saying that there is a policy.
Keep up the good work JEP.
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is not the destruction of evidence a offence?
or is this more of the “the jersey way ” that the public are coming to expect.
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We need a review of the civil service – it seems to be out of control
Numbers need to be cut and the salaries quoted in the JEP are far too large given the current financial recession
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Why is this guy still in a possition of trust !!
Why are we still paying him
Bill Ogley and others have to go
we need people in the civil service that we can trust
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hand written minutes?
Seriously? i mean the amount of laptops they all carry around so preciously and the “professionalism” of these people – something is definitely fishy there
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Under fire. But not fired. SNAFU!!
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I prepare lots of typed minutes of meetings, which are circulated for approval by all participants and/or amendment.
I’ve never shown anyone my handwritten notes – they are private, frequently irrelevant (I often complete my shopping list in meetings) and contain doodles. I assume no-one has asked Graham Power for his handwritten notes of the meeting.
Throwing away hand written notes in favour of a typed and agreed transcript is pretty standard practice. As for shredding – all paper in a modern office should automatically be shredded.
What a storm in a tea-cup.
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All disciplinary meetings should be taped using PACE procedures so that an accurate transcript of what was actually said can be made. Then there would be no dispute.
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With all respect Mike R your probably not chief of police nor been handling a huge child abuse scandal.. There is a storm brewing and its not the size of a tea-cup.
rs
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Rico, I think the Chief of Police suspension enquiry may just be a little different. He was after all over seeing from what we were to believe to be a muliple murder enquiry.
This notes argument is a poor defence against the cock ups that have been made.
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For such an important meeting, why didn’t the Senior Civil Servants take record the meeting? Surely things said at that meeting would be important at any future meeting and accuracy would be vital….remember the addage from the First World War, when commanders asked for a message to be sent down the line, “Send reinforcements we are going to advance.” The message gets to H.Q. as,”Send three and fourpence we are going to a dance.”
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Sorry, but I can’t really see why this is such a big deal.
Surely Mr Power took his own notes of the meeting and is still free to confirm whether the States’ (now typed) notes are accurate or not.
Someone has typed up the Minister’s notes and thrown the hand written version away. This makes sense. The hand written version can probably only be read by the person the wrote it anyway! The typed version then forms the Minister’s version of the meeting – to be approved or disapproved by Mr Power.
For all we know, Mr Power is happy with the typed version!
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