There is more evidence that politicians have been kept in the dark over the £20m to £30m increase in costs for the PEH modernisation project.

It's emerged that some civil servants at the States' senior committee, Policy and Resources, knew about a possible £30m increase in the PEH modernisation budget, but kept it quiet from politicians for more than two months.

The revelation comes in answers to written questions put to P&R by deputy Gavin St Pier, under States Rule 14.

In it, the committee admits:

'A limited number of senior officers were made aware of the potential cost challenges during November and December 2023. Initially, this was highlighted informally through line management channels as a risk......As the work matured, more formal briefings took place at the very end of January 2024.'

It goes on to say that the political members of P&R were not informed until 13 February 2024.

In March, health committee president Al Brouard said staff who'd known about the increase but hadn't told his political team for around ten months, no longer worked for the States.

Deputy St Pier asked about the termination of their contracts but was told:

'The circumstances surrounding their departure are private to the States of Guernsey and those individuals and therefore, in accordance with established practice, no further details may be given.,

The issue has prompted former deputy Barry Brehaut to use the social media platform X to question the relationship between some civil servants and politicians:

The fact that staff were not sharing information with both HSC & P&R is worrying. In the case of HSC, it’s as if staff viewed the committee as the junior partner in the relationship, keeping them appraised, or not, as they saw fit. pic.twitter.com/rJBxfiLCWH

— Barry Brehaut. 🇬🇬🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇫🇷↙️ (@BrehautBarry) May 16, 2024