AFR information not confidential or relevant, says Scrutiny head
Monday 4th March 2013, 8:30AM GMT.
SCRUTINY COMMITTEE chairman Paul Arditti, pictured, has said information given to deputies about the settling of the AFR case at a behind-closed-doors meeting was ‘neither confidential nor relevant’.
Home held the briefing on Thursday in an attempt to head off political pressure to release how much taxpayers’ money was spent fighting and settling a two-year court battle which arose after an illegal raid on law firm AFR’s offices.
Its meeting began with a warning to those present that some of the information they would be given was confidential and there could be legal consequences if it was released publicly.
‘The Scrutiny Committee has been carefully monitoring the Home Department’s statements and is actively considering this serious and urgent matter,’ said Mr Arditti, a lawyer.
‘Although I am not at liberty to divulge the information which was imparted to deputies at the presentation on Thursday, I am able to inform you that what I heard was neither confidential nor relevant.’
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The law was broken by breaking into AFR ilegally.Justice must be shown by taking the guilty to court.You can not bend the rules for any individal in a case as complexed as this one.Lead by example the laws and penalties of law breaking.
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Nice to hear from Scrutiny whose mandate is to challenge the effectiveness of Departments and their general service delivery
Mr Arditti doesn’t appear to have blindly accepted Mr Le Tocq’s explanation as others appear to have done.I wonder if he has taken heed of the oft heard police warning ” If it sounds too good to be true – it probably is too good to be true”
Very odd not to hear a peep from PAC whose mandate is to ensure that States bodies operate to the highest standards in financial matters
Perhaps they are all extremely busy on behalf of the voting fodder trying to get to the bottom of this alleged cover up?
Those working feverishly on our behalf on PAC are :-
Deputy Heidi Soulsby South East
Michelle Le Clerc St PP North ( also on Home)
Sandra James Castel
Peter Sherbourne St PP North
Paul Arditti ( Perhaps HE is speaking for PAC as well?)
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Scrutiny Committee Chaiman Arditti confinrms what everyone (except apparently our pollitical ‘leaders’) know — the AFR information disclosed behind closed doors was ‘neither confidential nor relevant’.
Makes you wonder if the whole pantomime is a manoevre to distract attention from identifying who was responsibe tor the AFR incident? Why was a raid considered necessary? What was the motivation for the decision to raid so urgently(?) in the middle of the night? (Alleged drugs/arms trade/terrorism/national security might justify the urgency?). And what was the role of the responsible Minister in the decison to act?
We do not need an expensive, time consuming investigation/report. but we do need a simple and ‘truthful’ statement of the relevant facts by the appropriate Minister to allay fears that those responsible are still in a position to repeat the -aberrant and gross abuse of police powers. Continued dealys will only lead the public to believe that it is taking time to concoct a ‘version’ that reveals truth with ‘economy’?
In any case the foolish idea that Deputies/Ministers in the States Assembly are bound by confidentiality agreements is a complete nonsense. As befits a soveriegn legislaturem,Deputies (including Ministers) speaking in the Assembly are free of all contraints (including libel) to speak their mind. No confidentiality agreement, whatsoever, can impair or limit that right.
All that has been achieved with amateurish attempts to shelter behind pseudo confidentiality reqirements is to attract attention, delay the dissemination of information, and awaken currents of distrust in the public.
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Rustylink
Excellent point about statements in the Assembly being exempt from confidentiality agreements .. that’s how Ryan Giggs was named in the Commons despite a Court order super injunction ( rather than an under the counter handshake)re his off the pitch peccadilloes
Looking forward to the missing AFR figures coming out at the March States meeting unless of course the local gentlemans club rules supersede the rule of law
All it needs is a Deputy with actual bottle
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Perhaps it is just one mans opinion that the majority of States members
differ from.
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Rustylink & IWV. Yes, you are quite right. I think it is effectively ‘Parliamentary privilege’.
Dave Jones: ‘one man’s opinion’ – that the local press, and, judging be the posts, and as common sense would dictate, most of the ‘stake holder’ electorate would concur with.
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A tad cryptic Dave?
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Ultimately I think that the top civil servants are responsible for the deeply ingrained cultural ‘avoidance’ problem in Guernsey where civil servants and political appointees simply will not answer questions and stonewall, and it always works – eventually the public give up because they have no tools with which they can force accountability, and in the case where there is a lone complainant that person can be easily portrayed as a pariah. It’s interesting how readily many Deputies will go along with this.
A good analogy would be to observe bullying in a playground: how it starts and who owns up to it and who joins in.
No Freedom of Information Act means no application of school rules.
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I think this yet again goes to show that the public servants have twisted the whole relationship. They are there to do the public’s biding and not to direct them.
Maybe we should add each of them to a list when their conduct falls below an acceptable standard. This way we can remember it when the time comes to vote, mind you I suspect it will be a very long list.
If I were to make large errors as they do in the states I would have been sacked.
I say get rid of these greedy self serving politicians and then start to weed out the incompetent public servants.
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The Freedom of Information Law as applied in the UK is so restricted by rules and regulations that it is virtually impossible to gain any information the Government does not wish to give you.
If you don’t believe me, try it.
All we need here in Guernsey is an open and transparent government where the politicians speak their minds without resorting to the “advice” of their senior civil servants who often prefer to keep their heads down below the parapet.
The good Deputy for the Vale has always spoken his mind, sometimes much to the regret of his officers and colleagues, and long may that continue.
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