Grants and Subsidies – Follow Up

Background

Providing grants to third parties is an important means by which governments and public sector bodies deliver their policy objectives.

To ensure that those objectives are secured economically, efficiently and effectively it is important to have the right
controls in place, from design of grant schemes through to evaluation of their impact.

In December 2017, the then Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) issued a report on Grants and Subsidies. The report considered the development, oversight, management and evaluation of grants and subsidies awarded to third
parties by the Government of Jersey.

In December 2022, the C&AG issued a report on Grants to Arts, Heritage and Culture Organisations. The report considered the effectiveness of the plans and processes in place to implement, and monitor delivery of, the new Arts and Heritage Strategies adopted by the Government of Jersey.

The Government continues to make extensive use of grants and subsidies to third parties.

Scope

• the progress made in implementing agreed recommendations from the 2017 and 2022 C&AG Reports
• the extent to which the recommendations as implemented have addressed the improvement areas identified in the Reports; and
• the adequacy of plans for the implementation of any outstanding recommendations.

In doing so, the audit evaluated:
• the effectiveness of the States’ overall arrangements for the development, oversight, management and evaluation of grants and subsidies awarded to third parties; and
• the effectiveness of the arrangements for a sample of grants and subsidies against the criteria used in the 2017 Report and updated as appropriate    against more recent good practice. This included good practice developed by
the UK National Audit Office and adapted to be proportionate to Jersey.

The audit considered arrangements across a sample of departments and a sample of grants and subsidies schemes. The samples were selected from the Department for the Economy, the Children, Young People, Education and Skills
Department, and the Cabinet Office.