The politician said the investigation was in response to two purchases he made – one when a £362.76 personal flight booking was ‘inadvertently’ paid for with a States credit card and the second related to an £82 hotel bill. The Senator has said that both expenses have been repaid.
He added that he made senior States officials aware of the error, made a submission to the States commissioner for standards and refunded the bill for the flights. He also confirmed that he opted to repay the hotel bill when it was queried by the States chief executive John Richardson despite believing the expense to be ‘justified’.
Files from the police investigation, which was launched after Mr Richardson contacted officers, were passed to the Law Officers’ Department who subsequently decided not to charge the Senator.
However, Senator Ozouf admitted that while done in error and repaid, the £326.76 flight that was paid for on a States card ‘may well constitute a breach of the Code of Conduct for States Members and/or the Ministerial code’.
Senator Ozouf was sacked as Assistant Chief Minister earlier this year on the morning of a vote of no confidence debate in Chief Minister Ian Gorst.
Senator Ozouf initially resigned as an Assistant Chief Minister following the Jersey Innovation Fund scandal, was re-instated, only to be sacked weeks later on the day of the vote.
The former Treasury and Assistant Chief Minister has regularly been one of the highest spenders on States travel expenses.
In a speech during Monday’s States sitting, Senator Ozouf said: ‘The self-referral was made to ensure that I have taken any necessary action to correct any inadvertent breach of the Code of Conduct but also to ensure that lessons can be learned in relation to the expenses process generally.
‘Notwithstanding the corrective actions I have taken, like all Members I take the Code of Conduct very seriously.
‘I have decided to make an unqualified and sincere apology for any breach of the Code of Conduct for States Members and/or the Ministerial Code that I may have committed in relation to any aspect of my expenses.’
He added: ‘Having lost my ministerial role due to the expenses speculation, undergone criminal investigation, spent hundreds of hours assisting with the internal review and had months of unrelenting, damaging and frankly upsetting media speculation about this issue – I hope that notwithstanding any findings of the commissioner I can now focus on serving the people of Jersey as best I can between now and May 2018.’
