THE Policy Council was sabotaged. Housing minister Dave Jones made the claim ahead of the publication tomorrow of ministers’ reasons for their resignation in the wake of the clinical block contract fiasco that cost taxpayers £2.4m.

‘This Policy Council was not broke – it was broken deliberately,’ he said.

‘We should stop stabbing ourselves in the eye with a blunt pencil over one incident.’

But despite the furore that has seen claims that the government is spineless, he insists the new system will work.

‘It’s very young and we are kicking ourselves to death over one incident. A huge amount of work has been achieved, culminating in a business plan that has more flesh to be put on the bones,’ he said.

‘People are saying this present debacle is a cleansing exercise.

‘The damage it has caused will take years to repair,’ he said.

Deputy Jones made his comments at an Any Questions?-style fund-raiser at Delisles Methodist Church Hall on Saturday night.

Asked where, if he could not live in Guernsey, he would like to reside, he joked: ‘Anywhere else after these last couple of months.’

Deputy Jean Pritchard, the Scrutiny Committee chairwoman, said the government was currently experiencing an ‘all-time low’.

‘The Policy Council has failed because it has not been dealing with strategic issues,’ she said.

‘We need 10 people who can think and work together and get on with the job.

‘We have to learn from our mistakes and move on to implement a new machinery of government,’ she said.

‘We have to work together far more corporately.’

Health minister Peter Roffey believed the current debacle was a low in this particular House but warned: ‘I think it would be a very, very sad day if we went for cabinet government in Guernsey.’

Deputy Jones said the chief minister’s job could be difficult because of the diversity of views among council members.

He believed there was still a lot of misunderstanding, even among States members, about the council’s role.

‘It’s not a cabinet but a forum to discuss policies from each of the departments,’ he said.

Businessman Tom Scott claimed recently that the Fallagate issues should have been sorted out over a cup of coffee.

‘I really wish it had not happened,’ said Deputy Roffey.

But once it had, dealing with it over a cuppa behind closed doors would have been entirely the wrong approach, he said.

Deputy Pritchard agreed.

‘There is a question of £2.4m. ‘of avoidable expenditure’ and you have to have answers,’ she said.

‘These things have gone too far to be just smoothed over.’

Deputy Jones said: ‘Tom was a little naive when he said that on the radio.

‘We are running a government, not a business.’

Deputy Tom Le Pelley insisted that the matter should have been dealt with at the pre-tender stage.

‘This should have been nipped well before the bud came into view,’ he said.

He was against any moves towards an executive government.

‘We need to live with the power of the people,’ he said.

‘If the public don’t like the choices, they will let us know at the next election.’