Gary Burgess: ‘Teflon Charlie’ survives £50k role row… but could the axe fall elsewhere?

What a week it’s been for Jersey’s most senior civil servant.

All week, indeed all year, Charlie Parker’s known about his £50,000 non-executive directorship of a property trust in the UK (he's giving that money to charity, by the way). But it’s only when journalists broke the news early on Wednesday morning that everybody else got to find out.

And that, we now know, includes Mr Parker’s boss, which is the States Employment Board (SEB).

After three days of murky and carefully worded statements, a late Friday mea culpa from both Charlie Parker and the Chief Minister, admitting SEB had not been asked for their permission.

Though they’ve retrospectively given it.

Charlie Parker, we are told, has apologised to the Chief Minister, with both saying it was a “genuine oversight”. SEB have expressed their “utmost disappointment”.

In layman’s terms, that’s a slap on the wrist and an end to the matter.

Or is it?

The effect of what we now know (as suspected all along) is that Charlie Parker has been in breach of his contract of employment since taking on the NED role with NewRiver on 10 September.

Would another employee get away with little more than a roll of the eye?

Furthermore, in his very carefully worded letter to the Chief Minister about it, he lashes out at the media for its reporting of the affair, accusing journalists of commenting “without the full facts”.

Sound the irony klaxon. Journalists contacted the Communications Unit to get the full facts, and instead got a short statement that we now know contained multiple inaccuracies, including the assertion Mr Parker’s side hustle had been supported by the Deputy Chief Minister, Senator Lyndon Farnham.

Today we are told, in fact, he’d actually expressed concerns about the move!

Mr Parker goes on to complain about his “limited right of reply”.

I asked for an interview with Mr Parker on Wednesday morning to offer him complete right of reply. He declined.

Anyhow. The most senior civil servant in the land, known privately as “Teflon Charlie” is in the clear.

But the ramifications of this past few days could have devastating political consequences for the Chief Minister who has promised that classic response… he’s launching a review.

For his opponents, for those who were agnostic about his leadership, and even for some supporters, this past week has the very real potential to tip over into something much more serious.

Watch this space.