ISLANDERS will not be surprised to learn that those responsible for suspending a top civil servant for no apparent reason have gone to ground.

The silence to our disclosures have been deafening and, as with our August story about a health official not working for approaching two years on full pay, no one in authority will take any responsibility for their actions.

Colleagues of the States chief negotiator, however, have been appalled by his treatment and it is understood that he has received many messages of support and sympathy.

What his boss – head of the Policy Council’s HR unit and the man who triggered the incident – apparently did not know was that the individual with whom he had issues was not going to face any disciplinary action following a preliminary investigation.

That says much about the way this matter has been conducted.

Suspensions clearly have a place in any employer-employee relationship. If nothing else, they provide a breathing space in which to investigate possible problems and reach some conclusions. However, they have to be managed properly and be proportionate and timely.

This was none of those things and, since the HR unit is attached to the Policy Council, it is a botch-up at the centre of government.

Perhaps worse, the mishandling has occurred within the very department which is supposed to advise the rest of the States on employment matters and prevent situations in which highly-paid health professionals can be suspended for many months and locums employed to cover for them.

The cost of that particular episode is now believed to have exceeded £600,000 and – again no surprise – the official wall of silence is similarly ear-splitting.

This cannot go on. The taxpayer demands better of its servants and the scale of the problem was underlined nearly two years ago in something called the Robinson report, which highlighted a reluctance to have difficult conversations within the public sector, something exacerbated by a lack of clear, focused political and executive leadership.

What recent events demonstrate is that nothing has really changed.