ONE of the biggest changes that the States has to embrace – and it has nothing whatsoever to do with cabinet government – is how it views money.

Tucked away in the latest Budget, on page 41 as appendix five, is a table that indicates how departments are happy to spend islanders’ cash in circumstances that arguably amount to false pretences.

The issue is over so-called ‘unspent balances’, the funds granted to political boards that isn’t used in the year in which it is granted.

At the beginning of 2009, the total amounted to £23.5m., very nearly enough to build the adult acute mental health facilities that are a priority for the States, or equivalent to one year’s funding for the capital projects fund. Not only is it a lot of money for which the island has a pressing need, it represents around £560 per taxpayer.

By the end of next year, however, that cash pile will be down to just £5m. and will have been spent on what?

When departments asked for the money it was for a specific purpose and within a specific timescale – not on the basis of, ‘bung us a lump of dosh and we’ll find a use for it’.

Yet that is exactly how spending ministers regard it – with the honourable exception of Commerce and Employment and Environment, who have returned significant amounts – and over the years represents a significant waste of taxpayers’ money.

The departments will argue otherwise but the fact remains that any unspent balance remains the property of those who provided it and if the relevant minister did not require it in a particular year then it was not needed and should be returned to the Treasury.

If the need to spend remains, then a fresh case should be made. But what happens now is that a departments asks for an allowance for X and later, sometimes years later, spends it on Y.

It is disgracefully wasteful and a cynical abuse of islanders’ own money and one reason why consultants Tribal said that the necessary checks and balances on spending are not in place.

Ministers and their departments know that – and most are happy to ignore it.