States consultant spend and hiring face changes

New restrictions on the use of consultants and hiring high-earning civil servants will be put to Guernsey's States this autumn.

Deputy David Goy has prepared eight proposals to alter Policy and Resources' (P&R) tax proposals, which are due to be debated at the States meeting starting on 30 September.

He has suggested there should be a 30-day notice period on the hiring of any consultants for Guernsey's States, alongside a similar period for new civil servant posts earning more than £100,000 a year.

P&R has proposed a 3% goods and services tax (GST), lower income tax rates, higher income tax allowances, changes to social security, motor tax and higher taxes on some companies.

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Deputy Goy said these proposals would allow the States to exhaust all of its options before engaging "expensive" consultants or hiring new staff.

He suggested his proposals on States recruitment were "an accountability and transparency amendment for senior role hiring".

He added: "Before we start looking at taking more money out of taxpayers' pockets, we should be looking at where money is being wasted."

During the last debate on tax reform, deputies were accused of "gagging" their colleagues by stopping any debate on proposals from Goy to reform the island's tax system.

Ahead of the next debate, he said his proposals would be returning in a form where he believed they could be debated in full.

They include plans for new taxes on unused properties, changes to document duty and new taxes on high-net worth individuals, to avoid the introduction of a GST.

2028 GST start date in question

Some deputies have suggested there will be about 42 amendments for debate at the September States meeting.

If a decision is not made on tax reform at that meeting it could spill into the States sitting starting on 21 October.

Officials have warned this could mean if plans for a GST are approved, later in October, the implementation date for the new tax package may slip later than the start of 2028, to allow businesses time to get up to speed with any new systems they may need to implement the new tax.

Opponents of P&R's tax package were accused of delaying tactics during the last States debate, something they denied.

Deputy Rob Curgenven has criticised P&R's tax plan and said it may not bring in as much as officials at the treasury had calculated.

P&R has said the package would bring in about £40m each year to support public services.

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