Official withdraws from ferry decision after online vote

A senior Jersey official has withdrawn from his involvement in the decision on which company will operate the Channel Islands ferry services after “accidentally” backing one of the bidders in an informal online poll.

Members of the Condor Ferries Users’ Group on Facebook were asked: “Who do I want the ferry contract to be awarded to?”

Richard Corrigan – chief economics officer and senior reporting officer (SRO) in the ferry tender process – voted for Danish firm DFDS, which competes with Irish Ferries and Condor.

The government’s economy ministry said it was “an inadvertent error” that was “corrected… as soon as he was made aware of it”.