School review cost 'not in public interest'

Publishing the costs of a contract with an education review provider could reduce the government's ability to get "best value for money" in future, the education minister has said.

Daphne Caine has defended her department's decision not to release the amount paid to external validators Etio in response to a Tynwald question for written answer.

She told the House of Keys that as her department was in the second of a three year contract with the firm it was "not in the public interest" to release the information.

But MHK Lawrie Hooper said the costs were "routinely made available by the UK in relation to the exact company and the services they provide".

Hooper said the rationale was "nonsense", and said based on figures released by the UK government indicated the Manx services would "probably cost between £150,000 and £250,000".

Cain suggested she could share the figure confidentially with the Public Accounts Committee.

During Tuesday's sitting, Kate Lord-Brennan called for the minister to provide a cost range for the report, arguing releasing the information was about "education delivery, standards, and public money, not about Etio".

Chris Thomas MHK said it was "unusual" not to share the costs even when a contract was live, and noted that Treasury had published the terms of contracts in the past.

Concerns were also raised by Julie Edge MHK, who said she did not understand why there was "so much resistance when it is such an important piece of work for our schools".

Tim Glover MHK questioned how released the figure confidentially would restore and maintain public confidence.

Caine said it was not in the public interest if it "breached" commercial confidentiality, and the competitiveness of future bids was "compromised".

She said the department would "likely" go out for tender in the next six months, and sharing the cost could limit the "commercial competitiveness so that all bids come in within a ball park".

That was "not serving the best interest of the Isle of Man community", she said.

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