Blame for the embarrassing collapse of the Vision Nine project lies with the Minister for Economic Development and his former chief executive, a damning Tynwald report concludes.

The economic policy review committee reports concludes that the proposal approved by Tynwald in April 2016 to bring in Vision Nine as a private promoter for the TT was ’fundamentally flawed’.

It would have reduced financial risk to the Department of Economic Development but would have increased financial and other risks to government as a whole, it concludes.

The explosive report, to be presented to this month’s Tynwald sitting, states: ’We conclude that responsibility for the failure of the project lies primarily with the Minister for Economic Development, Mr Skelly, and with the department’s former chief executive officer, Chris Corlett.’

In mitigation the committee accepts that both they and the Council of Ministers deserved some credit for abandoning the project when they did, in November 2016.

But it adds: ’The invidious situation in which CoMin found itself at that time should never have been allowed to arise.’

The decision to discontinue process to find a private promoter partner for the TT was ’justified’, says the report, adding: ’The mistakes which led to the need for this embarrassing climb-down had been made much earlier.’

Criticising the way the DED would have given away control of the TT and Classic TT to the very significant extent contemplated by the contract with Vision Nine, the committee states: ’The concept of outsourcing responsibility for these events is arguably tantamount to outsourcing the governance of the Isle of Man for four weeks of the year.’

The DED ‘seriously underestimated’ the impact its proposals would have on other departments – and the proposal appeared to ‘hit a brick wall’ when the draft contract with Vision Nine was circulated to other departments.

It said the DED relied heavily on The Sports Consultancy not only for commercial advice but also for project management support and legal advice. This was a mistake as the department cut itself off from the Attorney General’s Chambers which was not asked for, and did not volunteer, an opinion as to whether this arrangement was a good idea.

The committee found that the Sport Consultancy’s pre-existing relationship with Vision Nine did not invalidate the procurement process but it was ’hardly surprising that bidders previously unknown to The Sports Consultancy felt disadvantaged.’

A full analysis of the costs of the TT is still not available, despite a request made by the Council of Ministers in February 2014. The committee recommends that the Economic Affairs Division should complete a detailed economic impact assessment of the TT and Festival of Motorcycling.

In a statement, the DED said it will ’now consider in detail these conclusions and recommendations’ and will provide a full response as part of government’s broader response to the report for January’s Tynwald.

* Full report on this story - see next week’s Examiner