TREASURY AND RESOURCES MINISTER
Education, Sport and Culture 2008 Budget Transfers
- Purpose of Report
- The Minister is asked to agree the 2008 year end budget transfers for the Education, Sport and Culture Department (ESC) in respect of ICT funding and the waterfront pool deficit.
- Background
- ICT Funding
The Minister will note that the issue of how to fund the ICT replacement programme and phase II of the ICT strategy has been on the agenda since the first phase of the strategy commenced in 1999. Funding for one year of £600,000 was identified within the States central IT vote for 2008, which has as yet not been called on by the department. No funds have been allocated for 2009 and 2010, but long term funding is to be considered within the current Strategic Plan process.
In line with practice for the past 3 years, it is proposed that savings made within the department’s revenue budget are transferred to the ICT capital budget for use against ongoing ICT replacement and enhancement. The department has recently taken receipt of PCs, which were ordered in 2008 but only received in 2009, to the value of £130,000 which requires this funding.
A summary of the financial position of the ICT capital budget is shown below :
| Budget £ | Expenditure £ |
Brought forward 1 Jan 2008 | 2,854,697 | 1,892,758 |
Revenue transfer | 310,000 | |
Expenditure 2008 | | 83,379 |
Out-turn position 2008 | 3,164,697 | 1,976,137 |
| | |
Figures in italics indicate transfers proposed in this report.
In addition to the above, a further £256,000 has been spent on revenue items such as support for schools ICT co-ordinators, software licences, systems support and training. These costs will be reflected within the revenue budget.
2.2 Waterfront Pool
The latest figures from a report dated 9th January 2009, prepared by James Shepherd, Operations Director, Serco (Jersey) Ltd indicate a net overspend of approximately £342,668 in respect of the operation of the Waterfront Pool for the year 2008. As a result of some confusion during the course of the year in regard to the amount of subsidy payable monthly by CTP Ltd (the original developers of the Waterfront site) there is still a small credit balance remaining on the Business Unit dealing with the Waterfront Pool, and the sum of £337,000 is required to fund the deficit payment.
The Waterfront Pool was transferred to the administration of the Department for Education, Sport and Culture (ESC) from the Waterfront Enterprise Board in the early part of 2005. At that time a commitment was made by the then Finance and Economics Committee that deficits (which are contractually bound to be paid to Serco (Jersey) Limited) would be funded centrally and that there would be no adverse affects on the ESC budget.
The loss for 2006 was £275,456, which was paid to Serco in the early part of 2007 and a budget of £275,000 was transferred from T&R to cover this payment. A creditor was raised at the end of 2006 to correctly account for the deficit in that year.
The loss for 2007 was £297,873, which was paid to Serco in the early part of 2008 and a budget of £298,000 was transferred from T&R to cover this payment. A creditor was raised at the end of 2007 to correctly account for the deficit in that year.
Funding for 2009 has been agreed as an addition to the budget of the ESC department, however, for 2008 the budget remains within the capital allocation held by the Treasury and Resources department.
A refund of £25,427 was received from WEB for contingency expenses in 2006 in respect of the Waterfront Pool which is currently held by the Treasury and Resources department. It is therefore proposed that the refund is transferred to ESC and that the remaining required budget allocation of £311,573 is also transferred to ESC.
- Recommendation
It is recommended that the Minister approve the following transfers:
- £310,000 from ESC’s revenue budget to their capital budget for the ICT Strategy phase II;
- £25,427 actual from the Treasury and Resources department to ESC; and
- £311,573 from the WEB Leisure Pool capital vote to ESC’s revenue budget in respect of the operating deficit of the waterfront pool in 2008.