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Key targets still haven’t been set for Jersey's top civil servant more than two months into the job, with the Chief Minister admitting proposals for measuring her performance remain sitting in his inbox.
Senator John Le Fondré said the delay in setting the objectives for Suzanne Wylie, who was recruited in July 2021 and joined the Government of Jersey on 1 February 2022, was due to the upcoming election, other items on the agenda and the distraction caused by the war in Ukraine.
His comments came during a hearing with the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel yesterday.
During the hearing, Senator Tracey Vallois asked for an update on the overhaul of the law governing the employment of civil servants, which was revealed to have holes when it comes to disciplining the CEO in the wake of Charlie Parker's departure. It was originally due to be updated in March 2019, but then pushed back.
After being told that it was now being left in the in-tray of the next States Employment Board - the panel of politicians who officially act as 'Employer' for all government workers - Senator Vallois questioned how the Chief Executive would be held to account, and how her performance appraisal would work in future.
“The performance appraisal proposals are in my inbox at the moment so we will be working through that, obviously before things change and obviously there is an existing disciplinary process if we need it,” the Chief Minister said.
Pictured: The Chief Minister said the performance appraisal proposals for Ms Wylie were "sitting in his inbox".
Ms Wylie then interjected to provide “reassurance” to the Scrutiny panel and the public in terms of the clarity around her role.
“I feel it is quite clear what my role is and also in terms the principal accountable officer and how that relates to the [Director Generals] through their ladders as accountable officers for the various pieces of work they do,” she said.
While her current set of objectives are yet to be set by the current Chief Minister, Ms Wylie added that she would have a "more medium-term set of objectives that clearly will have to then be agreed with the subsequent Chief Minister.”
Senator Kristina Moore, who chairs the Panel, however questioned why objectives had not been set despite Ms Wylie having been in the role for 10 weeks.
“Could you explain, Chief Minister, why they are sitting in your inbox, would you not want to set those objectives at the very outset?” she asked.
Senator Le Fondré replied: “I think part of it is we’re in the last phases of this particular Council of Ministers and therefore it’s going to work its way through and bear in mind, we have quite a lot of other items on the agenda and we just had a war breakout in Ukraine, which has diverted some attention.”
Senator Moore appeared surprised by the situation given that the Chief Minister had been “so keen” to appoint a new Chief Executive.
In late July 2021, Deputy Kirsten Morel published a proposition seeking to delay the appointment of the new CEO to until after the election in June 2022.
Pictured: The Government had opposed an attempt to appoint a new CEO prior to the June 2022 election to ensure the chosen candidate's principles aligned. Now it will be for the new Government to set Suzanne Wylie's objectives.
But before the debate took place in September, the Government had already made an offer to Ms Wylie, who was at the time Chief Executive for Belfast City Council, which she accepted.
Deputy Morel eventually withdrew his proposition after the States Assembly received clear and unambiguous legal opinion from the Solicitor General that changing a recruitment process that is set out in law would be open to judicial review.
“It’s just interesting to understand your priorities Chief Minister because you were very keen not to keep the interim for a longer period of time, which was an option made available to you,” Kristina Moore said. “So you wanted to choose the successor who would work with the future Chief Minister but you don’t consider it important for you to set the objectives, are you just going to let the next Chief Minister do that?”
The Chief Minister started his reply by saying Interim CEO Paul Martin hadn’t applied for the permanent role before being interrupted by Senator Moore who said he was wasting time by going over topics they had already covered and asked Senator Vallois to move on to the next question.
The current situation somewhat echos the one encountered with the previous Government CEO, Charlie Parker.
Pictured: Former CEO Charlie Parker worked without any KPIs for more than a year.
In August 2018, Express revealed that Mr Parker had spent a year in post without a set of 'key performance indicators’ (KPIs) - an agreed set of standards against which his performance can be measured.
The previous administration, led by Senator Ian Gorst never finalised these in the months between Mr Parker’s appointment and the elections.
A few months later, Express uncovered that Mr Parker's contract allowed him to set his own objectives, and later that the company eventually tasked with evaluating his performance had worked with him before in London.
Express recently spoke to Senator Tracey Vallois about who holds the power in Government and how to hold them to account, whether Committees need to make a comeback and why she is leaving politics...
£250k States CEO working without agreed job criteria (August 2018)
One year on and still no success measure for States Chief (November 2018)
Psychologist called in to assess States Chief's performance (November 2018)
Contract reveals CEO allowed to set his own objectives (November 2018)
£250k States Chief's assessors worked with him before (December 2018)
"The Chief Executive is acting almost independently" (October 2020)
INSIGHT: Unlimited power with limited accountability (June 2021)
Belfast CEO tipped to take top Jersey Gov job (September 2021)
Bid to delay appointment of CEO delayed after legal advice (September 2021)
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