When the States meets at the end of next month, members will be asked to approve an £80m. package of works at Guernsey Airport which will be the most expensive capital project embarked on by the island.

While it has been a controversial issue, it is clear from the latest report that Public Services and others have invested a huge amount of time and resources into ensuring that the development represents value for money and has been properly procured.

What is proposed will not please everyone – particularly western parish residents – but it does pass a number of important and stringent tests and it is clear that PSD deserves credit for the way it has approached the project.

Because the scheme has been secured on a robust price/quality evaluation basis plus a value engineering exercise with the preferred supplier, reductions in the contract price have been achieved.

According to Treasury and Resources, the way it has been handled provides assurance to taxpayers that the work is needed, is justified and that a business case exists for the work to be done.

Risks, however, still exist. The project is not scheduled to be complete until summer of 2014 and is very complex so PSD and its advisers will find it challenging to bring it in on time and on budget.

On a more mundane level, it is not clear how much indirect benefit Guernsey will see from an expenditure equivalent to nearly £2,000 per taxpayer.

Contractors Lagan intend to bring in up to 150 of its own staff and there is still no word of how and where it will source materials. Locally based Ronez is understood to be willing to operate on a 24-hour basis to provide stone and asphalt, which would keep at least some money in the island.

PSD has, however, so far refused to say whether Lagan intends to import all its materials or to use local sources.

So while the proposals might represent best value, it is not yet possible to say whether the island will get the maximum benefit from the £80m. it is spending.