AT THEIR meeting next week deputies will be presented with the Public Accounts Committee’s report on how to improve island governance.

It’s a big topic boiled down to six core principles.

If approved, these tenets will form the foundation for every decision and action taken on behalf of our government.

It is interesting to wonder how the speed limit report might fare under such a system.

How, for example, does it conform to principle one? ‘Good governance means focusing on the organisation’s purpose and on outcomes for citizens and service users.’

In other words, what’s the point of it?

As discussed yesterday, this is its biggest failing. Its aim is to stop dangerous speeders but its outcome will be to condemn thousands of law-abiding motorists to dawdle along at 20 or 30mph along roads where they have been safely driving at 25 or 35mph for years.

How about principle two? ‘Good governance means taking informed, transparent decisions and managing risks.’

While there is a welter of detail in the report about the speeds at which motorists currently drive there is an absence of any data informing islanders about problem areas in need of change.

If, for example, several years crash information was included it might show where and at what speed people are having accidents. If drivers are doing 50mph then lowering the speed limit will not help. If many are within the limit and speed is a factor then perhaps a change is justified.

And principle six? ‘Engaging stakeholders and making accountability real’

This was a sticking point in the working party.

While the whole review could be termed ‘consultation’, it includes no information from relevant parties such as taxi and bus drivers, douzaines, deputies or road safety groups.

But ‘no consensus was reached by the group when it would be most appropriate to consult with interested parties’.

Had the good governance principles been in place they might have guided the working party towards a better informed and inclusive report with a real goal. A pity it’s too late for that.