Budget round two underway

(CNS): The Cayman Islands government has already begun the preparations for the 2011/12 budget. Even before the 2009/10 has begun to take any effect, the calendar is forcing government officials to start the process of predicting the operational needs for the next fiscal year and to estimate what government is likely to earn in revenue. Leader of Government Business McKeeva Bush has acknowledged that the problem of the administration having to work on a another budget so quickly is down to the movement of the general election post Hurricane Ivan, which has not yet been addressed.

The fiscal year runs from June to June, which was designed to accommodate the election of a new government in November, giving any new administration the time to make sensible fiscal planning over a longer period and eliminating the problem of rushed spending plans. However, the cancellation of the November 2004 election in the wake of Hurricane Ivan has shifted the political calendar out of sync with the fiscal one.

At the opening of parliament in the wake of the May elections, independent member for North Side, Ezzard Miller, called on the new government to shift the date back, which would see the current administration either going to the polls early in November 2012 or late in November 2013.

Even though the previous UDP administration had gained an extra 6 months because of Ivan, while in opposition, it was not prepared to see the PPM administration that followed run their administration to November 2009. It will now be down to Bush to sacrifice 6 months from this administration to get the elections back on track as the PPM will be very unlikely to agree to a push back to November 2013 given the UDP’s refusal.  The LoGB has not yet confirmed whether his administration is prepared to make the sacrifice.

Meanwhile, the administration is working on a budget whichwill represent its strategic policy for the next few years and it is doing so without any knowledge of whether the measures taken in the 2009/2010 have helped or hindered the country’s current economic difficulties.

Chief officers, financial officers and government ministers met at the Westin this week to begin shaping spending plans for 2010/11, which will be presented before the Legislative Assembly on 18 November 2009.