From Bernard McGarry.
SO we now appear to have learnt who is responsible for the atrocious blunder which is to cost us anywhere between £3 and £8 million and I wouldn’t mind betting the figure will eventually rise even further.

The States chief executive Bill Ogley and his deputy John Richardson make it clear that the blame lies with one of our most highly paid civil servants, the States Treasurer, Ian Black.

I could hardly believe what the latter is alleged to have said and I quote: ‘I accept that a currency risk is an important issue and it will not be within the expertise of the chief officer of that department. So what you do in those circumstances is to bring in expertise to deal with those issues.’ What on earth are these six-figure salaried top civil servants supposed to be capable of?

It does not take an expert to arrange to forward buy foreign currency. For many years while I was involved in the travel industry, my accountant and I were responsible for forward buying foreign currency. The two of us would sit down and work out our requirements and then a simple instruction given to our bankers would suffice. One did not need extra expertise to carry out this relatively straightforward exercise.

Had we committed a blunder, such as that which appears to be the case with our States Treasurer, we would not have remained in employment with our employer for much longer, neither would we have received any severance pay or enhanced pension rights as seems to be the case with senior civil servants who are eventually dismissed after having been suspended for some considerable time on full pay.

Assuming that what was reported in the JEP is correct it is quite clear to me where the buck should stop and the person responsible must be held to account and their position immediately reviewed.

Just an observation – this blunder is likely to cost more than the amount of money required to acquire the Plémont site.
Les Arches,
Mont Félard,
St Lawrence.