States boss apologises for Revenue Service backlog
BBCThe head of the States of Guernsey has apologised for an "unacceptable" Revenue Service backlog that has built up over 12 years.
The report found there were 106,444 outstanding work items - including tax assessments, repayments and bereavement cases - at the end of August.
States' chief executive and head of public service Boley Smillie said the Revenue Service was "turning that corner" and he was "genuinely very optimistic" about the future.
He said the volume and complexity of the backlog was down to a transformation programme that "unfortunately failed to deliver".
"It was right in its aspirations but failed to deliver the very sort of basic tools required by our teams to do their jobs," Smillie said.
The report states the backlog will not be dealt with until at least October 2028 unless there is more investment in the Revenue Service.
"If we did nothing else, introduced no other initiatives, that is the time it will take to get through the backlog as it is today," Smillie said.
"That's not the finish line target as far as we're concerned."
He added: "We are now seeing the green sheets of improvement.
"This year is the first year in which the situation has started to get better and significantly better than compared to previous years."
Director of revenue service operations Jean Mehers said she did not "necessarily understand the scale" of the problem when she started the role in 2025.
"I am a really big advocate of transparency and so I feel this is the right thing to do rather than trying to massage something that just doesn't relay what's actually happening," she said.
She added: "People may feel they've heard this before and they may feel that an apology is hollow.
"Me sitting here and apologising for where we're at is not good enough. From my point of view it has to be in the results and it has to be in the delivery."
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