BY agreeing to keep their expenses claims out of the public domain, States of Alderney members would be sending out a worrying message both at home and abroad.
The debate is apparently to come before a Policy and Finance Committee meeting tomorrow. It erupted last week after States member Richard Cox called for islanders to be told exactly how much each politician claims from the public purse.
Although he criticised his colleague’s tactics of airing the issue via the media, the row led to Policy and Finance chairman Richard Willmott, who also represents Alderney in Guernsey’s States, releasing full details of his £6,351 allowance last year for attending 125 meetings.
But, worryingly, there were claims that two other unnamed members had reacted furiously to the expenses proposal.
Perhaps most disheartening, though, is the image that such in-fighting projects: not just within the islands but to communities farther afield where other parliaments elect openly to publish their expenses.
Indeed, set against Guernsey’s own moves towards a greater transparency through scrutiny, our neighbour’s reported divisions on this important issue just don’t sit comfortably at all.
Why should such important information about their money not be available to Alderney’s islanders?
And what is wrong with knowing how many meetings each States member goes to?
On the plus side the row, reported in this newspaper last week, means the subject is now a very public one.
Though whether the people of Alderney will eventually get to learn how much all their representatives receive in expenses remains uncertain at this stage.
By referring the matter to the P&F, it is unclear whether all the discussions will get fully reported.
Time to be open
BY agreeing to keep their expenses claims out of the public domain, States of Alderney members would be sending out a worrying message both at home and abroad.
The debate is apparently to come before a Policy and Finance Committee meeting tomorrow. It erupted last week after States member Richard Cox called for islanders to be told exactly how much each politician claims from the public purse.
Although he criticised his colleague’s tactics of airing the issue via the media, the row led to Policy and Finance chairman Richard Willmott, who also represents Alderney in Guernsey’s States, releasing full details of his £6,351 allowance last year for attending 125 meetings.
But, worryingly, there were claims that two other unnamed members had reacted furiously to the expenses proposal.
Perhaps most disheartening, though, is the image that such in-fighting projects: not just within the islands but to communities farther afield where other parliaments elect openly to publish their expenses.
Indeed, set against Guernsey’s own moves towards a greater transparency through scrutiny, our neighbour’s reported divisions on this important issue just don’t sit comfortably at all.
Why should such important information about their money not be available to Alderney’s islanders?
And what is wrong with knowing how many meetings each States member goes to?
On the plus side the row, reported in this newspaper last week, means the subject is now a very public one.
Though whether the people of Alderney will eventually get to learn how much all their representatives receive in expenses remains uncertain at this stage.
By referring the matter to the P&F, it is unclear whether all the discussions will get fully reported.
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