FORMER Sea Fisheries Committee president Ron Le Moignan has become the latest to add his voice, in a radio interview, to the calls for some openness about what the island’s unsuccessful attempt to introduce a 12-mile fisheries limit has actually cost the taxpayer.

Specifically, he wants to know what compensation has been paid as a result of the 2003 limit having been declared unlawful by the Privy Council and the loss of earnings that has caused for non-local fishermen.

This saga goes beyond that, however. Governments cannot expect to go on legislative escapades, get it wrong, rake up who knows what in legal and compensation costs and not give an account of what went awry or how much out of pocket the taxpayer is as a result.

Yet that is exactly how the Policy Council is behaving with its refusal to disclose anything of substance on a matter of significant island

interest. If it can do that with a court settlement that – for all deputies know – could compromise future capital spending, what other cover-ups is it sitting on?

The gagging order on the outcome of the compensation court case is very convenient for the council. Who asked for it? These things are not automatically imposed by the court, they have to be requested. And who agreed not to resist it if the fishermen had asked for the secrecy clause?

If at officer or HM Procureur level, that would be bad enough. But if it was a political decision to seek, or not to resist, a legal device to prevent taxpayers from knowing the damage caused, that would be appalling.

Transparency within the States of Guernsey and its satellites is purely – and deeply unsatisfactorily – voluntary. There is a lot that the council could say about the dispute, including the total expense of the various legal actions and the costs of the other sides that Guernsey has had to pay, without getting close to the gagging order.

But to do so would be embarrassing and the council can always count on States members mounting no effective challenge.

And in-the-dark taxpayers just pick up the bill.