Jersey ‘fiddled the books’
Thursday 28th May 2009, 3:00PM BST.
Former Health administrator Graham Prouse: ‘Officials exaggerated charges’
JERSEY ‘fiddled the books’ for years to try to keep the reciprocal health agreement with the UK going as long as possible, a retired senior civil servant has claimed.
The ex-Health administrator said that it had been known for 20 years that the Island was getting the much better end of the deal.
Graham Prouse alleged that Island officials exaggerated charges to disguise the real costs to the UK.
The British government axed the arrangement at the end of March, complaining that it was handing over £3.9 million a year for the treatment of UK visitors when it was only cost ing Jersey an estimated £300,000 to provide the service.
Mr Prouse said that senior Health officials in Jersey knew the agreement was in ‘serious trouble’ as far back as the late 1980s and 1990s.
Mr Prouse was the Health department civil servant with responsibility for the 11 reciprocal agreements Jersey had with other territories. He had that role for 25 years from 1971 until 1995.
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Yet another example. Sorry Jersey, but you’re either in or you’re out of the UK. Can’t have it both ways.
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Question is… where did the rest of the £3.6 Million go?
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What is it exactly about truth and honesty that we seem unable to stomach……….one wonders who else is being complicit and for how long…?
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Perhaps if we had been honest and transparent in our dealings with the UK we would still have a health agreement.
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Pity he waited until 14 years after retirement to bring this up.
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Well done that man for exposing the truth.
As a British Taxpayer can I along with the rest of us have OUR money back?
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You,d think by now they would know that truth would come out eventual.no wonder we have no trust or faith in them
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Am I reading this right?
Effectively Jersey has defrauded the UK taxpayer to the tune of 3.6 million per annum. Makes the current UK scandal around MP expenses seem like small change.
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But during this whole period the island was running large budget surpluses and we could have easily afforded to pay the difference.
The value of the agreement to the island and islanders was huge but is seems that very little effort was made to save it.
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“Do nothing that cannot see the light of day”.
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this must be the biggest clanger of the year, and still they tax our food.
if any of us mere mortals had done this we would be behind bars.
where is the missing money?
and is poor old joe soap going to cough up again.
some people are slowly choking.
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Fantastic! I was paying taxes in the UK all that time so can I now get some of that money back in the form of not having to pay the full whack for the prescription I’m about to put in.
OR, do I have to be ripped off twice?
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Honesty and integrety? A good reputation? What are those outside Jersey going to think about all this?
If I was the UK I would be demanding its money back. Surely this type of practice must be illegal?
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Talk about corrupt Governments? Jersey must take the biscuit. Firstly they blame the UK, then they try to blame Guernsey and all along it was Jersey ripping off the UK! So what do they do for the Islanders? Nothing. Go out and get your own Insurance, If you cnan’t too bad. Heads must roll, starting with the Chief Minister and his cronies.
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this is outrages if it was the other way i’m sure Jersey would be clamouring for someones head in the UK and demanding a trial !!! lets face it the place and all the other so called low tax places are just ripping of the UK even now you dont expect the Government here to come out and say that now do you ? why else do we need another 10,000 20% tax payers ? the answer is to carry on paying the silly pensions for ex states employees,there is a huge problem coming but not to worry as todays politician wont be in power when it hits the fan
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This is only one man’s opinion, whose motives are not entirely clear.No doubt that this UK government no longer regards us as “our dear Channel Islands”, as expressed by Winston Churchill during our liberation from the evil of nazi occupation, which we alone suffered,uniquely, as part of the only British Isles to be have been occupied by German forces.The UK spends billions on wars in far off countries,millions on foreign aid and yet has decided to severe any tangible economic links with its oldest loyal subjects.
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I’m originally from Southampton & my mum still lives there. She’s disgusted by these figures, but not surprised. I agree with #1 Ben – either Jersey is part of the UK or not. So many posters seem proud of the fact we are an independent island, so why should UK taxpayers subsidise Jersey’s sick?
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Is false accounting not a criminal offence?
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Excuse me you UK lot! You must be forgetting that Jersey people pay their taxes which went towards looking after you when you came over here.
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If it was joe public he would be dragged befor the court.
Is it a case of laws for them and laws for us?
Or are they beyond the law?
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So if this is actually correct, we now owe the U.K. govt. not only an open apology but close to £60 million refund including interest it seems…those responsible should be charged under the appropriate law and recompense sought..Looks like another massive own goal and a potential field day for the tabloids, many times I have heard local politicians level at others the cry of being offside and treasonous when all they were trying to do was get truth and justice…they need never have worried,…given enough rope..Eh
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Sorry #19 Lou I think you have not understood what the story is claiming.
The story is explaining that Apparently the bill for treating UK residents that where in Jersey only came to around £300,000 a year and the Jersey States Apparently falsified the reports and claimed almost £4 Million for treatment from the UK government instead.
This means apparently none of the Jersey Residents Tax contributions went towards the health bill for visiting UK residents.
Now I could be wrong but is Graham Prouse admiting to being responsible for the blatant fraud of UK tax payers money?
and will the countries that have the other 10 reciprocal agreements with Jersey be checking to see if they have been defrauded?
Now I am not sure if the allegations are correct or not and I guess the facts will have to be proven.
But if it is true I am sure nothing will happen to the people responsible, and as normal only the hard working people of Jersey will suffer in some way or another.
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Perhaps I’m missing something, but if the UK did not have any accurate idea how much NHS medical procedures were costing during the 80′s and probably some of the 90′s how were they producing their side of the figures? Going to BUPA scales, as Jersey did, as a best guess does not seem unreasonable, particularly as BUPA ia a non-profit making company. Also charging extra for longer procedures may have been standard practice. Is there any evidence that Jersey were not open about what they were doing?
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Surely the UK government are incompetent for not spotting this imbalance 20 years ago. Assuming all this was true, I’m not excusing it, but UK tax payers should be asking questions of their own government first before blaming Jersey.
Personally I think this is a hyped story either by the paper or Mr Prouse (who incidently had 20 years to say something but chose not to) or both. I think it more likely that the reason the UK pay more is simply because there are more Jersey visitors and students in the UK than there are UK visitors to Jersey and hence the difference in charges. If something untoward were happening it would have been picked up by the UK over 20 years of audits and they would be demanding their millions back.
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#19 Lou
please explain how as a Jersey tax payer you think that UK people are looked after when they arrive. No benefits system here when anyone arrives so, if you dont work immediateley you dont get.
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Lou,
Its been clearly stated in the article (true or not) that the costs of actually providing a service to UK visitors do not nearly reflect the charge they were hit with annually.
(And that would be, putting it extremely mildly.)
And thats from a member of the ‘local lot’
I think it only fair the UK look into it, to discover the full truth behind the mans allegation.(not that they’d have a cat in hells of getting any)
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And this avaricious micro-state is on the so called white list for its honest and transparent behaviour!
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You’re right, I didn’t read the article properly I just made assumptions. Apologies. I just meant that if anything did happen whilst visitors are here they get looked after. I can’t believe that it only actually costs us £300,000 for a whole year though. Surely it’s a mis-print.
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Lou (28) and others. The civil servants are being forced to make wild guesses, because nobody kept accurate accounts. Health management in both Jersey and the UK, only now starting to understand their own business; A sad reflection on all heath managers.
Graham Prouse and Pip Clement (4&9) simply reflect the realities of heath managers getting to grips with management! We need open disclosure of accounts so we know where the real costs fall.
Finally. How about Jersey residents, the true local, who has paid, and continues to pay UK tax. Do we get free treatment on the NHS?
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What a load of hogwash.
We don’t have a residency system in Jersey or work permits. Therefore there is no way of assessing whether someone from the UK is a permanent resident, a temporary resident or a holidaymaker.
As there are no such barriers to entry, I bet that Jersey provided lots of healthcare to people who lived in Jersey for a year or two before moving on – prior to the introduction of ITIS, moving on usually coincided with receiving their first tax bill.
So in other words, the £300,000 quoted may be accurate for the cost of people spending a long weekend here: but what of the builders, casual workers, career criminals etc who simply flit in and out? How did they figure in the stats.
Lies, damnded lies and statistics.
I would introduce a system of work/residency permits and only provide free non-emergency healthcare to people with such permits. Its not complex.
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The answer is to look at the Scrutiny report regarding the accounts for 2007. Its on the Gov. Website.
To give a snapshop, Sarah Ferguson scrutiny says that States accounting is a complete mess, and also that Chief Executives spend money, any way they wish. Police officers going first class to Australia comes to mind. Transparent accounts is urgently needed for every penny spend. Chief officers need to be made responcible for budgets being spent wisely.
Sunshine is a wonderfull disinfectant, ask the English Mp’s.
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Davy West,How right you are ,it was only months ago that the treasurer,yes same dept as the Euro debacle,admitted not knowing the actual financial state of play and further said it was out of control, whilst being paid to control things,another example of a civil service that needs reigning in sharply,with that being the case is it any wonder thay just keep wanting more from the public,if you don’t know how much you need the answer can only be MORE…Let’s get them OUT…
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