IN AN exclusive report yesterday, the Daily Telegraph reported that council chief executives in charge of making deep financial cuts in the UK have run up expenses and credit card bills of £2.6m. on luxuries such as five-star hotels and fine dining.

The apparently questionable use of public funds was uncovered using Freedom of Information requests to question spending records of 340 local authorities since 2008.

Interestingly, however, the same ‘shock, horror…’ approach would not be possible here if the States adopts the information strategy proposed by former Ministry of Justice senior official Belinda Crowe, whose report is currently with the Policy Council. In it, she recommends what she calls some ‘quick win’ first steps that could be taken easily, at minimum cost and which could make a real difference.

The first has already been done – the publication of her strategy paper to demonstrate intent by government that it is committed to greater openness and transparency.

The second step is to create a strategic communications function to get information out quickly and consistently. While the council has made no explicit comment on that, it has recently engaged a head of international relations for the External Affairs Team whose background is in communication and PR and who would certainly be well placed to provide advice or guide such an internally-focused resource.

The third quick win proposed by Ms Crowe is to publish information about expenses and salary ranges of key public figures – of which the absence of such detail triggered yesterday’s Daily Telegraph disclosures.

In some respects, Guernsey has been ahead of the pack because civil service pay scales have been published for decades. That does not go far enough, however, and as Ms Crowe says, ‘consideration should be given to other groups, such as Crown appointees, senior civil servants, regulators and the judiciary’.

The chief minister regularly gets criticised for his overseas trips but is always willing to answer questions about cost and type of airline travel because he tries to be frugal.

What happens elsewhere, however, is still a closed book and – because Guernsey still has no policy, let alone legislation, on access to information – those with things to hide continue to get away with it.