Agricultural Society gets its cash

| 26/02/2013

11118_614304321918098_645700002_n.jpg(CNS): A publicspat between the premier and her chief officer appears to have been resolved and the local agricultural society has received its regular $20,000 from government as a contribution to the Agricultural Show. Juliana O’Connor-Connolly described the removal of the cash from her ministry's budget as “very unfortunate” and reiterated government’s commitment to the annual show. O’Connor-Connolly had publicly criticised her senior staff on Radio Cayman last week regarding the issue but she said since then she had met with her chief officer, who had apologised and explained how the error had occurred.Speaking at the government press briefing on Thursday, she said that Chief Officer Alan Jones had been away when the situation arose and it was not actually Jones who had removed the funding, but he took responsibility as he too was annoyed but had found the $20k for the society at the 11th hour.

The premier, who is also the agriculture minister, admitted that she had been unhappy about the situation and she had expressed her feelings about it. But following the explanation and a certainty that it could not  happen again, she said the situation was resolved, the air cleared and the society paid.

O’Connor-Connolly said that she was only made aware of the missing cash on the day of the show, which took place on Ash Wednesday, 13 February. The money, which is an annual grant, covers some of the cost of the show held in Savannah at the Department of Agriculture’s grounds in Savannah.

This year’s show attracted some 8,000 people, where she said an enhanced product had been on show from local farmers, along with a diversification into crafts and other things. The premier said she was pleased to see the level of camaraderie amongst the district farmers rather than competition, despite the battle for the ribbons on offer for livestock and produce.

See more about the show and results on Facebook.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    OK, now can the national squash association please have all the money they were guaranteed in a contract with the (then) Premiers office when they hosted the Women's World Championships to raise funds for the junior programme that all schoolchildren have the opportunity to go to for free?

  2. Anonymous says:

    She's acting like a child.  How disgraceful.

  3. Fiddy Cent says:

    20 G’s? The price of horse meat better be coming down soon around here!

  4. Anonymous says:

    A measly 20K???. The Ag Society should get some of the millions from the church fund as they do more far more good for the community! 

  5. NHB says:

    Maybe if the show didn't have the huge cash prize there wouldn't be a need for this uncalled for subsidy, as many market at the grounds events that are held all during the year and the pile's of booths sold during the show all of that should be able to comfortable put on this event.

    What need to be reviewed is the agriculture department, with all it's staffing and how it has now becoming more of a competion to the farmers in producing crops to pay for all their staff, instead of being a propagator of seedlings to make local farmers lives easier and cheaper to produce needed crops.

    Cost of crops would be much cheaper if farmers could just go to the deparment and pickup seedlings, instead of having to waste time doing it themselves along with the cost of hiring workers to maintian that section of their farms as well

    Also why can't the department not take volunteers to work the crops, and use all the many people that can't find work, that is one department that no one should be on a work permit that does manual labour.

    NHB 

  6. Anonymous says:

    The  trite meaningless drivel that comes out of this woman's mouth is unbelievable.  Ms. O'Connor Connolly, ever heard the saying, "Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt?"

    Unfortunately it is a little late for that huh?

     

  7. Young Caymanian says:

    Good to see the premier made sure to support what is part of our culture.

    • Diogenes says:

      What part of Cayman culture are your referring to – the growing of our own food, entirely worthy but not really needing any subvention by the government through show sponsorship, given the revenues made from ticket sales and booth rentals,or the culture of having very generous raffle prizes, notwithstanding an apparently contradictory cultural etheic of frowning on gambling. Get it straight – grand prize for the raffle $20000 – amount contributed by the tax payer – $20000. 

  8. Jonas Dwyer says:

    Pray tell what happened to the RAffle nothing published yet?

  9. Anonymous says:

    You haven't seen nothing yet! Just wait.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Perhaps if Paul, aka the driver did not leave her car idling for extended periods money would be easier to find.

  11. Anonymous says:

    That woman is always in some type of spat with human kind. Please do the Cayman Islands & its people a favor, step down & take up crochet on your porch.