Payroll co-funding scheme (FOI)

Request

It is noted that the Audit Team responsible for supporting the Government's Payroll Co-Funding Scheme is being operated by BDO, Advisory Services and not by the Government itself.

I would therefore be grateful if you would supply me with the following:

A

A breakdown of the current and future fees paid and payable to BDO for the provision of this service.

B

A breakdown of these costs between each activity undertaken

C

The date the contract commenced and its expected end date

D

The full name and address of the supplier

E

Full details of the tender process for this work and details of how many other firms were invited to tender

F

The number of firms who submitted a tender

G

A copy of the tender proposal document

H

Copies of the relevant correspondence that demonstrate why it was considered that the Government did not have sufficient internal resources to undertake this work either directly or through Government backed organisation, for example but not limited to, Jersey Business

Response

A

The exact amount is deemed commercially sensitive and is exempt under Article 33 (Commercial Interests) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

B

Information is not held by the Government of Jersey to the level of detail requested.

C

There is no specific contract for Co funding payroll scheme audit as it is being done under the Government Internal Audit Framework for which BDO are already contracted to undertake audit for.

D

BDO - Windward House, la Route de la Liberation, St Helier, JE1 1 BG

E

Internal Audit provides independent assurance on key systems and controls within the States of Jersey. The Internal Audit function has a co-sourced model, which compromises an Internal Audit permanent team as well as affiliate contractors and firms who are appointed to do work as appropriate under the tendered framework agreement. The Internal Audit review of the co-funding scheme has been done in line with the framework agreement; it would not be appropriate for commercial reasons to disclose fees in relation to the Internal Audit framework tender.

There was no separate tender for this work but it was done under the framework agreement. Internal Audit will retender for Internal Audit work under a framework agreement in 2022.

Therefore, there is no specific contract for the Co funding payroll scheme audit as it is being done under the Government Internal Audit framework.

F and G

There is no specific contract for the Co funding payroll scheme audit as it is being done under the Government Internal Audit framework. As such there was no tender process for this work.

H

The Co funding payroll scheme is a new scheme, which is a large financial commitment to the Government of Jersey; and therefore it is important that there is independent assurance of the scheme. Under the framework model and as per Public Sector Internal Auditing Standards it would be deemed appropriate that qualified auditors do this. Therefore, as per internal procedures, Internal Audit is doing the audit of the Co Funding payroll scheme and the resources utilised for the scheme are reviewed by the internal audit team and by the co-sourced providers under the framework agreement.

Article applied

Article 33 Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Prejudice / public interest test

Article 33 (b) allows an authority to refuse a request for information where its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including the scheduled public authority holding the information). Whilst we accept that the public may have an interest in the value of Government of Jersey contracts we believe the exact contract values are commercially sensitive and that the release of this data could affect the negotiation of future contract values.

In addition, the cost of the contract with BDO in relation to the Government Internal Audit Framework is not reflective of the cost of conducting the audit into the Co Funding payroll scheme solely.

As well as the co-funding scheme, BDO, as one of our co-sourced Internal Audit providers, undertake other audits including those of other schemes. The framework agreement was done as a full procurement tender on the CI Portal which all firms can tender for if they wish.