Government's management of public property examined
24th December 2020
Plans for work to be undertaken by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to examine the Government’s management of public property, valued at over £1 billion, have been published today.
The newly formed Committee, chaired by Deputy Inna Gardiner, is to continue a Review started by her predecessor Senator Sarah Ferguson. The Committee has assessed the information gathered to date and identified a number of key issues that to explore in the next phase of its work. It will press for the completion and implementation of a comprehensive Estate Management Strategy, with an accompanying Corporate Asset Management Plan (the operational level implementation plan of the strategy). It regards this as an essential part of the Government’s financial policy that will underpin post-Covid recovery.
And it will hold the Chief Executive (whether the current or interim post-holder) to account for ensuring that the re-organisation of the Infrastructure, Housing and Environment (IHE) Department is fully implemented in 2021.
The Committee expects to present a final comprehensive report by Quarter 3 of 2021 and updates on progress before then. Work is to begin in earnest in early January 2021 and will include a number of public hearings and engagement with senior officials, States owned arms’ length bodies and users of publicly owned property.
Deputy Inna Gardiner, Chair of the PAC, said, “The new membership of the PAC did not want to lose sight of the very hard work that the former Committee members put into pressing the Executive to provide a comprehensive Estate Management Strategy and property maintenance programme. We are committed to undertaking the next important phase of this Review and holding Government officials to account for the delivery of a comprehensive Estate Management Strategy. We will publish a final report by September 2021, by which time we will have questioned all departments on their views of public land and property management. We will continue to press for a joined-up approach to property maintenance.”
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