Government of Jersey

Processing and management of invoices and staff expenses (FOI)

Produced by the Freedom of Information office
Authored by Government of Jersey and published on 05 September 2023.
Prepared internally, no external costs.

Request

Please provide information around the processingGovernment of Jersey staff expenses and supplier invoices:-

Expenses

Which finance system is used by the Government of Jersey?

Which system is used to manage and process staff expenses?

What is the expense process?

How many expense claims were made in for the financial year 2022 to 2023 and what was the total value of expenses claimed for that period?

Are staff able to submit expenses remotely?

How is VAT claimed VAT on mileage? Do staff have to deduct commute from mileage?

What percentage of expense claims are being audited?

Which department is responsible for managing the expense process?

Does the Government of Jersey have full autonomy for managing their expense policy and process? If not, which organisation oversees this?

How many full time employees does the Government of Jersey have processing expense claims?

What is the average time to reimburse staff expenses?

How are the following reported on:

(i) Expense spend;
(ii) PSA expense types; and
(iii) Scope 3 emissions reporting?

Invoices

Which system is used to manage and process invoices?

What is the current process for handling supplier invoices, from receipt to being posted in the Enterprise Resource Planning Software Solution (ERP) or finance system, until they are ready for payment?

How many invoices were processed in the financial yeat 2022 to 2023?

How many full time employees do you have in the accounts payable team who process invoices?

What percentage of invoices were paid late in in the financial year 202 to 2023?

Is Optical Character Recognition (OCR) used to scan invoices?

Do the scanned invoices from the OCR capture have to be manually validated?

is there currently a Purchase Order (PO) system or a non PO system? If both types are used, what is the percentage of PO invoices versus non PO invoices?

Is VAT being claimed on invoices? If so, is this being done in house?

How is the invoice spend being reported currently?

If data is not available for the financial year 2022 to 2023, please provide data for the last complete financial year on record.

Response

Expenses

A and B

This information is exempt under Article 42 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

All expenses are processed through a system integrating with the payroll system. Employees submit expenses in line with defined guidance.

Total expense claims submitted in 2022 is £526,284.00.

12,668 individual claims or lines of data submitted in 2022.

Depending on how an employee had entered in their mileage claim, over a month they may submit multiple mileage claims in separate instances which would show as multiple lines of data or submit one milage claim with combined trips which would show as one line of data.

The total given reflects how many individual lines of data were entered.

Total submitted in 2023 (up until 30 August 2023) is £366,941.00.

8,875 individual claims or lines of data submitted in 2023 (up until 30 August 2023)

Yes.

VAT is not chargeable in Jersey.

This information is exempt under Article 37 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

Treasury and Exchequer agrees the costs or caps associated with expenses that can be claimed. The Cabinet Office manage the expenses process.

This would be combined between Cabinet Office and Treasury & Exchequer.

There are no Full Time Equivalent (FTEs) employees dedicated to processing expense claims as the system is fully automated.

The Scheduled Public Authority (SPA) does not hold information relating to the average time taken to reimburse staff expenses. The Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 does not require an SPA to create new data sets specifically for this purpose, therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

(i) Expenses are reported at a summary level in monthly financial reports that are produced by Finance Business Partners and Analytics and circulated to departmental Accountable Officers and Senior Leadership Teams. They are not itemised out anywhere for corporate financial reporting purposes.

(ii) ‘PSA expense types’ is not a classification used in Jersey; Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

(iii) Details are included in the annual report and accounts.

Invoices

This information is exempt under Article 42 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

The Freedom of Information (Jersey) 2011 requires that the SPA provide information held. There is no recorded procedure for handing supplier invoices therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law applies.

Approximately 220,000 invoices are processed per annum.

There are nine full time employees.

The Government of Jersey does not hold details of the percentage of invoices paid late in 2022 and 2023. There is no obligation to create data not held, therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

Yes.

Manual validation is required by exception only.

A Purchase Order System.

VAT is not chargeable in Jersey.

System reporting provides online access to invoice spend information.

Articles applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 37 - Audit functions

(1) Information is qualified exempt information –

(a) if it is held by a scheduled public authority mentioned in paragraph (2); and

(b) if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the exercise of any of the authority’s functions in relation to a matter mentioned in paragraph (2)(a) or (b).

(2) A scheduled public authority referred to in paragraph (1) is a scheduled public authority that has functions in relation to –

(a) the audit of the accounts of another public authority; or

(b) the examination of the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which another public authority uses its resources in discharging its functions.

(3) Information is also qualified exempt information –

(a) if it is held by the Comptroller and Auditor General; and

(b) if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the exercise of any of his or her functions.

Public Interest Test

In this instance, Article 37 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been relied upon as the SPA is satisfied that responding to this question would, or would be likely to, prejudice the exercise of its functions in relation to a matter mentioned in paragraph 2(b) of Article 37 of the said Law.

Article 42 - Law enforcement

Information is qualified exempt information if its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice –

(a) the prevention, detection or investigation of crime, whether in Jersey or elsewhere;

(b) the apprehension or prosecution of offenders, whether in respect of offences committed in Jersey or elsewhere;

(d) the assessment or collection of a tax or duty or of an imposition of a similar nature;

(e) the operation of immigration controls, whether in Jersey or elsewhere;

(f) the maintenance of security and good order in prisons or in other institutions where persons are lawfully detained;

(g) the proper supervision or regulation of financial services; or

(h) the exercise, by the Jersey Financial Services Commission, of any function imposed on it

by any enactment.

Public Interest test

It is recognised that there is a public interest in providing information in a transparent manner, however this public interest is not considered to outweigh the interests of the government in preventing cyber-crime. It is considered that release of this information may increase risks, particularly in view of major cyber-attacks that have occurred in other jurisdictions in recent years.