Prof Prem Sikka has been in Jersey for just two days but has arrived at some very critical conclusions already.
Of course, he has visited before and has a political agenda but there comes a time when such people as Prem and Richard Murphy or John Christensen really should be listended to.
Others within the Island have been expressing critical thoughts for many years too and been dismissed by the "establishment" as troublemakers or cranks or worse but such learned people as Prof Sikka should not be so casually dismissed.
His observations on Jersey's failure to achieve acceptable standards of "good governance" are especially relevant now - at a time when Jersey is trying to grapple with reform of the democratic/electoral system.
The spectre of the UK government's restorative role in the Turks and Caicos Islands should be in the minds of all residents of small British territories around the world but especially those that are involved in dubious "tax haven" activities.
Prof Sikka meets all sorts of people around the world and at his Essex University where undergraduates and graduates from over 100 nationalities study. Here he expresses some of his departing thoughts in a ten minutes interview but what a pity that the Jersey government does not engage with his mind more usefully? What a shame that such a person was not invited to serve on the Electoral Commission!
Over the past few years Jersey has removed from office a Chief of Police, the Chief Executive Officer of the States administration, the Auditor General, and now the Church of England Dean is "suspended".
A States' Senator has been imprisoned and hounded and the Chief Magistrate too is currently in jail...A local accountant has just been imprisoned in Australia in connection with the most serious tax evasion case known in that country, finance scandals on an immense scale with international dimensions are regularly being revealed - usually in foreign courts - whilst other local accountants, lawyers and other professionals face prosecution and sometimes jail, in Jersey....
Is this Jersey administration as currently constituted able to provide "good governance"? Is it fit to offer finance services to the wide world?
Prof Prem Sikka is a frequent writer on accountancy and related economic/political matters in National newspapers and regularly advises government departments/politicians. He travels and lectures widely.
see www.guardian.co.uk/profile/premsikka
AABA is the Association for Accountancy & Business Affairs which he heads.
see visar.csustan.edu/aaba/home.html
Membership is just £10 p annum.
