WHAT publication of the States annual accounts has done is to demonstrate, in clinical, unemotional language, that spending by this government is out of control and is now a danger to the long-term viability of the island.

It also reveals just how worried Treasury and Resources is by the picture that has emerged – far from departments exercising any restraint as they are obliged to under resolution of the Assembly, the rate at which they are spending is increasing.

That T&R is having to work with individual departments to review and analyse that increase is revealing: financial control is so lacking that the necessary information is not available.

As the Treasury minister has put it, ‘this has caused considerable concern to my board…’

Two things flow from that. The results of the detailed review will help decide whether T&R attempts to reintroduce restrictions on hiring staff, the so-called staff number limitation policy, and whether emergency steps are needed to pull expenditure back from the brink.

‘It is clear,’ the Treasury minister wrote, ‘that additional financial controls on departmental expenditure are increasingly necessary in order to ensure that expenditure is kept within budget and to secure the future financial health of the States.’

In terms of Billet d’Etat-speak, that is exceptionally strong and a clear reflection of how bad things are.

Treasury has been working quietly behind the scenes to introduce much greater financial stringency within the States, but it is not there yet. The question also remains of how much authority it has – or needs – over departments to get some common sense into heads branded as ‘profligate’ by external consultants.

And that is probably the biggest challenge this Assembly faces. The House was divided over introducing discipline over uncosted amendments to the States Strategic Plan and now faces having to accept, from what T&R is saying, someone else telling departments when they can and can’t spend.

The evidence is clear: the existing silo approach to government isn’t producing the cost controls necessary and must change.