Emergency expenses spent
(CNS): Among the many revelations by the financial secretary in his statement to the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday is that the country’s provision for exceptional circumstances is also overspent. Together with record levels of borrowing at $590 million and a $74 million deficit, the emergency provision for the year 2008/09 of $24 million has also been used up, and not all of it on emergencies. According to Kenneth Jefferson the CI$3 million for the establishment of a new route for Cayman Airways also came from this source of funding.
Jefferson explained that under the Public Management and Finance Law, the ‘exceptional circumstances’ expenses is an emergency provision which allows government to pay for unusual items that it did not expect and has not budgeted for, such as Hurricane Paloma and the Special Police Investigation, items which Jefferson described as of a “genuine exceptional nature”. The limit on this fund is set out in section 11 (5) of the PMFL and can be no more than 5% of budgeted revenue for the year.
With Hurricane Paloma, the judicial review and Operation Tempura, the previous administration faced a number of what would be considered emergency expenses that the provision was created for. However, it appears that Cabinet drew down on this source of funding for other projects that would normally be included in an annual budget. The administration used the funding for the costal protection project, medical care for the uninsured, scholarship supplementaries, the Golden Age home/East End clinic and the new Cayman Airways route.
Jefferson said that by October 2008 the Cabinet had spent more than half of the emergency provision, but that spending had not been approved by the Legislative Assembly. At the same time that the financial secretary was advising the elected government to take a supplementary budget to the House to ‘lock in’ the 6% cuts to start reducing the predicted deficit, he noted that the $14 million expenditure from this provision also needed to be approved. However, government did not bring the appropriations to the House until March, by which time Cabinet had spent another $10 million from the exceptional circumstance expenses. This meant that by March 2009 government had spent the entire emergency budget without approval from the Legislative Assembly.
Moreover, Jefferson stated that by the time these expenses were laid before the House that Cabinet was asking for even more emergency funds exceeding the legal allowed limit.
The financial secretary explained that over this financial year Cabinet has approved $26 million of ‘exceptional circumstances’ expenses which were not originally budgeted for. CI$24 million was eventually presented to the Legislative Assembly on 20 March during the supplementary budget. However, Jefferson noted that since that date Cabinet approved a further $2 million in emergency expenses which has not yet been approved by the Legislative Assembly and which breaks the terms of the exceptional circumstances expenses as set out in the PMFL.
Category: Headline News
When you are defending the failures of an FS and that FS has taken on a political stance rather than admit to those failures then you should know for sure there will be others out there who know better and will challenge his and your silly statements. And perhaps if Government’s accountants would lower the arrogance level, they would know when to seek the assistance of those who know what they are doing. You see it is not only your money that you are playing around with, it’s mine, my children’s and my grandchildren’s. Don’t forget that while you are providing your services.
One has to give kudos to CNS for giving a voice to everyone, the good the bad and even the obvious ignorant. I am not going to battle this out with you trying to give you an education on matters of the civil service.
I’ll let you have your little rant and ventlike a spoiled child.
You have a nice day now, when you are ready to become part of the solution and stop paying lip service to the problem, then by all means, join and serve your country.
Until then, I’ll continue to serve to the best of my ability whether or not ignorant people like you appreciate the work carried out by myself and the other 3800 civil servants in this Country.
"I am really sick and tired of people like you jumping to conclusions and making statements about the civil service when you don’t have a clue about what goes on and how it works."
It would be good for you to get some real world experience before you come on here as an expert on anything. It would be difficult for you to find an accountant in the private sector who is four years behind in preparing his/her accounts. Yet we do not need to look far to find this in Govt. In the time it is taking you to post this garbage you should be back at your office trying to find out what is the true cash position. The bottom line is the FS has to go! And if you are the person providing him with the information to substantiate his projections then we can see why he is off by $50 million, and you need to go as well!
Hmmmmmmm.. let’s see you all ask what Charles has done forCAL
A new branding which was so needed
New aircrafts which was so needed… oh and he didn’t ever wanna SELL CAL TO AIR JAM! THANK YOU FOR THAT Mr. Clifford
so what if he sits business class with his fam it’s $75.00 and upgrade what’s the effin deal…why don’t yall talk about Bush going on Govt.Business with just his wife more like a European honeymoon!!!!! you know he flew business class on BA on all those stops which his 2 seats are more than likely 4 times the amount what chucky and his whole family paid!
If there was a Friday evening flight to the Brac and LC I would go their for weekends all the time. But there isn’t so I go to Miami and money flows away from the local economy.
"Put that in your pipe and smoke it before you come on here with your ignorant comments."
And you should try to make some sense before you challenge someone else’s comment! As Mr. J is reporting that more was spent from resricted funds than what was approved by the L.A., then Mr. J broke the fixed deposit without the approval of the L.A. OR there is in fact significant comingling of Government funds!! Is that simple enough for you since it does not seem that you can understand a simple analogy? And yes, we all know what bank statements are, but if elected minsters now have to get copies of the Government’s bank statements to know what the true balance is in each Government bank account then it is truly a sad day.
You seem to know how Government is supposed to work but you don’t seem to know what is actually happening. But I don’t blame you entirely for your ignorance because no one in Government seems to know what is happening these days!
"Put that in your pipe and smoke it before you come on here with your ignorant comments."
Again, you people never ceases to amaze me, let me break it down for you, the Government not only take in cash from operating activities, it also takes in cash from financing activities i.e borrowings. In 2008/9 the Government borrowed $154 million, on top of that it has a $15 million overdraft facility.
If you read the statement from the FS, you’ll see that the projected cash balance at the end off the fiscal year (after taking the deficit into account) is $91.2 million of which $74.4 million is restricted. Just for your education, 91.2 is a bigger number than 74.4. What that means, is if you have 91 pineapples with instructions to always maintain at least 74 of them, you can give someone 17 of those pineapples and still have enough left to maintain your minimum quota.
No one is suggesting that Ministers look at bank statements personally to determine Government’s cash balances. The point was, even without audited financial statements, one can determine the cash balances of the Government (and especially the restricted cash balances).
I am really sick and tired of people like you jumping to conclusions and making statements about the civil service when you don’t have a clue about what goes on and how it works.
Here’s another piece of sage advice for you, you can keep quiet and let everyone assume you are a fool or you can start typing and confirm that assumption.
To poster: Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 07/03/2009 – 10:42.
The issue is not so much about HOW they spent the money but the fact that they spent these emergency funds at all and with out approval of the other members of the legislative assembly!
Now I know that you are a PPM supporter and it must be hard on you to see your beloved PPM fall so far from grace, but they have! And as a good citizen to this country you must see that your party has failed us and rightly so, they’ve been replaced….
The $3M was not for "a CAL route" but rather for the acquisition of the 4th B737-300 aircraft, the launch of the Washington DC route, for restarting the Chicago route, and the launch of the La Ceiba route and Panama routes. The La Ceiba route was delayed due to unreasonable delays with the Civil Aviation Authority in Honduras and at the time of the general elections plans were in the advanced stages for the launch of service to Panama.
Anyone who has said anything to the contrary is representing the facts and that includes the Financial Secretary who is now behaving like a UDP Minister.
PPM Pirates!
The PPM are a bunch of pirates that destroyed the financial resources of the Country. They were able to almost destroy what it took 500 years to achieve. Congrats PPM – you will go down in history for that.
CAL and reserve funding all in the same breath? Didn’t think they had anything to even reserve. Hmmm. Where’s the Chuckster? Hmmm awfully quiet and incognito. Funny how he was so quick to write the news houses and call the talk shows when he was in office trying to defend his actions now he doesn’t leave his Kaibo nest. Chuckster what were you doing with CAL besides sitting in business class withyour family? It seems worst now. You can’t keep hiding out there. You surfaced and took on the FS which had nothing to do with you area really, so speak up now about CAL!!!! Speak!!
PPM Slogan …..Red Party (angry), Red Face (shame), Red Ink (debt)
Check out the 2nd comment down on the Governor’s blog that was left even before the election http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/jack/entry/new_blog#comments
there were those who knew what was going on and the reckless way the Government was spending the country’s money by abusing the section 11(5) provisions of our laws. Pity Civil servants aren’t allowed to speak out
If the FS has not been able to provide audited accounts for 4 years, how would anyone know when funds are diminshed and you’re dipping into emergency cash? That would be like you or I opening a bank account and hiring an accountant to balance our checkbook. We start wrinting cheques but because we’re busy with our day-to-day activities we don’t really keep track of how much is spent. Plus we know that we can rely on the reports that come from the "professional" to tell us how much cash we have left. Right? But suppose that accountant is FOUR YEARS BEHIND in posting transactions (never missing a month’s payday though!), how could he possibly be able to tell you how much is in your account TODAY? He can’t ! By the time he has caught up, the bank is already calling you about o/d charges and bounced checks!
Can the FS tell the people of these islands the most recent month that the Government’s check book has been balanced?
If the FS has not been able to provide audited accounts for 4 years, how would anyone know when funds are diminshed and you’re dipping into emergency cash?
I wish that some of these people who come on these blogs and fly off the handle with their ignorant comments withouth knowing how Government works would put a cork into it.
There is a reason why the funds are called "restricted funds" they are not comingled with the other operating funds of the Government. To use your checkbook analogy, your checks debit from 1 account when they are presented to the bank ie. not every account you have with that bank.
In the same fashion, the Government has several accounts with RBC, some are operating and others are fixed deposits. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how much is on fixed deposit as the balances in those accounts only change by interest or deposits since it cannot be reduced without the LA’s approval.
further, there is a tricky little invention that someone came up with a few decades ago, its called a bank statement (you may have seen one before) it tells you the activity and balance in your accounts and is sent every month, you can even go one step further and discover online banking where you can go and view it every day.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it before you come on here with your ignorant comments.
Why did the PPM not want to bring the true budget before the LA?
Why did the PPM throw up smoke & mirrors to hide the real financial situation?
PPM can’t be trusted. PPM can’t run the country.
Alden & Kurt need to retire – so much for a Government you can trust.
Typically PPM style – blame everyone except themselves.
I have yet to hear Alden or Kurt say – ‘I take responsibility’ for anything. No, instead they blame everyone else in the room.
Shame on Kurt! and shame on Alden! – they squandered our country’s money. Their legacy is one of utter failure.
Notice how quiet Alden & Kurt are after the FS told the truth to the country?
Where is the Kurt & Alden now?
So PPM used Emergency Funds to, amongst other things, establish a route for Cayman Airways, but yet they wouldn’t give a dollar of emergency relief to the 1000’s of caymanians who were made unemployed during their administration, or built a single affordable home.
P&ss Poor Management = PPM!
PPM should be ashamed of themselves! They used emergency funds to establish the new route and they invited an airplane full of people and paid their hotel for a weekend in Washington. Kurt and Alden should resign since they allowed this and Chuckie should stay playing ostrich big time! When will the PPM blind followers realize that no matter how much they hate McKeeva, Kurt will never be a good leader like him and could not manager a business or much less a country if his life depended on it. Now will the PPM followers acknowledge their mistake? It’s like the blind leading the blind.
I would be really impressed if they had spent the 3 million to upgrade the Cayman Brac
" international " airport. and bring in direct flights.. What a concept, Keep the money in the country.
Why did the LOGB and the PPM fail to lock in the budget cuts so no one could spent it? That is what they need to tell the public.
The probable answer though is simple – it is very easy to adjust the figures on paper so that a reasonable looking budget could be presented on the eve of the election. it is however quite another thing to actually live by the cuts and clearly the individual ministers all said "my projects are going ahead regardless".
What most people fail to realize is that the PPM really thought they would be voted back in! Therefore none of this would have come to light and they would have gone on like nothing was wrong, and of course we would never have known the true state of our country. They would have continued to borrow money to pay for the expenditures and so on…..thank God we woke up!
It’s very scary to imagine what else was going on that we don’t know about and will only come out now. They were so sure they had this election in the bag that they didn’t even bother to clear out their offices until May 31st!
The trust is coming out about the PPM spending machine;
Can someone please tell them to take down their election sign off the esterly tibbetts highway – only an idiot would vote for them now.
The PPM were truly unfit to lead this country, but alas, while the majority knew this for a certainity the die hard supporters were in denial. It is unfortunate that all is coming to light at such a late date. They showed their poor management skills in the mismangement of the country’s funds and further went on to lose what integrity/credibility they had left in light of numerous lies told to hide the sorry state of our finances from the voters. If there is every a time that a forensic investigation should be launched it is now; they should have to face criminal charges for their incompetence and should be forever disqualified from running for publice office ever again. These people can not be trusted to take care of this country ever again. They are a glaring example of what the definition for incompetence is: PPM.
CNS Please ask Alden & Kurt the following question:
"Yes or No, were Emergency Funds used to establish a new route for Cayman Airways and the Coastal Protection project (I believe that ‘s the "lover’s wall" in East End)?"
Please Resign now!
It is now time for calls for the PPM backbench to resign over this issue.
The figures were ‘adjusted” on paper but the Ministries kept spending under instruction of the Ministers….The Ministers would not go to the LA( the people) with the correct information…and most importantly, the ex-Ministers clearly tried to mislead, or more possibly, LIE to the public over the last 2 weeks about this.
These issues are serious and have totally invalidated anything the last Government has done. Can we the people sue them? Our politicians must have some responsibility. And where was the Governor??–we pay his salary for allegedly providing “good governance”.
Mr. Tibbetts, Mr. McLaughlin , Mr Eden and Mr. Mclean…..you failed and apparently also Lied….Please resign now! You do not deserve to ‘represent’ the people.
CI$3mln for establishment of the bogus Honduras route came out of emergency gov’t funds?!?
PPM – Shame!
PPM should be ashamed of themselves. Using emergency funds to establish a route for Cayman Airways!
Read what FS said:
"Together with record levels of borrowing at $590 million and a $74 million deficit the emergency provision for the year 2008/09 of $26 million has also been used up and not all of it on emergencies. According to Kenneth Jefferson the CI$3 million for the establishment of a new route for Cayman Airways also came from this source of funding.
The administration used the funding for the costal protection project, medical care for the uninsured, scholarship supplementaries, the Golden Age home/East End clinic and the new Cayman Airways route."
Well PPM?
What will you say now, that the new route on Cayman Airways wasn’t started using Emergency Funds?
All the PPM had to do was admit they made a lot mistakes, but instead they wanted to throw the blame on everyone else except themselves, and now the truth is starting to come out about them.