NOW that the verdict has been delivered by the Wales Audit Office, it is clear that the States of Guernsey’s unfitness for purpose is even worse than we all thought.

None of the six principles of good governance are complied with fully and the way the States operates does not lead to providing sustainable services that offer value for money to islanders.

So having been tested, the system was not merely found wanting, it failed to score: nought out of 10 and the head of WAO went out of his way yesterday to emphasise that, for all its measured auditor-speak, the report was very, very strongly worded indeed.

Yet while the review is important – if only because this is the last in a series that now simply cannot be ignored – it is what happens next that is vital.

As things stand, Guernsey’s government does not know where it is going, has no directional leadership, has vague and drawn-out decision-making processes and, when it does make a decision, that’s often based on flaky information.

And in addition, it emerges in the report that the island’s chief executive, the number one civil servant, does not even have the power to direct the staff he heads.

So at a time when the island is facing a looming cash crisis and an outside world that is unprecedentedly hostile to the way it makes its living, those deputies and officials on which its citizens rely for their well-being are finally shown to be part of a system that is a basket case.

The final irony in this is that there needs to be decisive and urgent action to change a system that can’t actually do change.

And that is where the current States members have the opportunity to show their mettle and rise to the challenge of completely rebuilding Guernsey’s government – and its reputation.

The criticism of the States – which this newspaper led and is now completely vindicated for having done so – rests largely on the complete unsuitability of the present machinery of government.

History, and islanders, will judge this current Assembly on how well and how swiftly members put it right.