AN AMENDMENT that would have given the States the final say on when the financial regulator stops funding the GTA University Centre has been withdrawn.

Deputy Dave Jones (pictured) has done so after being assured by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission that it would continue to provide a grant to the centre until the beginning of 2013.

‘Mark [Dorey] and I have withdrawn the amendment on funding for the GTA as we have received a cast iron assurance from [commission chairman] Peter Harwood at the GFSC yesterday that they will continue to fund until the beginning of 2013, which gives us over two years to find an alternative mechanism,’ he said today.

‘The amendment also threw up another problem, which was whether government could direct an independent regulator as to how it should spend its budget.’

The GFSC has part-funded the GTA since 1987 as one of its general functions.

However, since an International Monetary Fund review in 2008, the GFSC has focused on becoming more operationally independent.

That means the commission is looking to stop funding the GTA by 31 December 2012. It also wants to remove itself from the ownership, governance and membership of the university centre.