ALDERNEY’S financial relationship with Guernsey needs to change, according to the president of its States, Sir Norman Browse.
In his annual newsletter, Sir Norman (pictured) criticised Treasury and Resources for not allowing Alderney to keep a contingency fund.
He believed the island might need to save cash in order to progress the tidal energy project.
‘If our own household budget was faced with similar challenges, we would be putting money aside to meet the anticipated future expenses,’ said Sir Norman.
‘Unfortunately, the current budget rules do not allow the States to save money. The department of Treasury and Resources in Guernsey does not allow us to put money into a contingency fund, even though it keeps a large contingency fund in its own coffers.’
Sir Norman said the rules required Alderney to spend any money made from its lucrative e-gaming industry almost immediately.
‘Consequently, we have to use up all our annual capital allocation (from our taxes) and any extra local income (e.g. from e-gaming) every year to ensure that it is all spent in Alderney. This means that priorities have to be regularly reviewed but, for example, should it suddenly be necessary to use all our capital for a number of years on one project, such as the tidal energy scheme, all other projects would have to be dropped because we have no contingency fund to fall back on.
‘I suggest that the island should clearly identify its most important long-term priorities and their possible costs before the funds are actually needed and be allowed to save some of its island-based income for the time when the funds are needed, especially while we have two potential island-based sources of continuing income – the gambling industry and tidal energy. To do this we would have to renegotiate our current financial arrangements with Guernsey.’
Treasury and Resources minister Charles Parkinson was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Article posted on 13th November, 2009 - 2.29pm
One Article Comment
To be honest, I was quite surprised that there isn’t a contingency fund in place already. Surely maintaining one would be nothing more than good housekeeping?
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