States developers back down over access to secret files

Tuesday 24 May 2016

The publicly-owned company developing the Waterfront says it will not fight an order to hand over secret files about the finances behind the project to an inquiry.

A fortnight ago the States of Jersey Development Company said that it was considering legal action after being told to hand over confidential documents to a Scrutiny review panel.

A dispute between the company and the Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel – which started a review into the Jersey International Finance Centre 18 months ago – ended a fortnight ago, when a panel of politicians decided unanimously that the panel had the right to see the papers.

But they have stipulated that the panel can’t copy or take away the paperwork – which includes financial forecasts for the JIFC project and the arrangements with UBS and BNP Paribas, the only tenants to have signed up so far – because it’s confidential, and commercially sensitive.

In a statement, the SOJDC Chairman Nicola Palios defended the way that they had fought the request for the documents – but said further legal action would not be appropriate.

She said: “The current Scrutiny arrangements were not designed with States owned companies in mind.

“In this case JDC had no choice but to spend time and money appealing Scrutiny’s summons in order to obtain protections that PPC has now imposed, to protect the confidentiality of information disclosed to Scrutiny.

“It is not in the interests of the Island’s taxpayers for appeals to the PPC to have to be taken every time a similar issue arises and therefore we would welcome a framework being established that enshrines these protections for States owned companies going forward.”