Mac faces civil servants
(CNS): The premier met with chief officers, department heads and other senior civil servants on Wednesday morning to discuss both the proposed reductions in their salaries and the need for dramatic cuts in spending to address what is now believed to be a deficit in excess of $62 million. McKeeva Bush told CNS that the discussions, which lasted for over three hours, went well and that senior public sector staff understood the need to make major cuts. He also confirmed that the government had decided to take the sale of the government office accommodation building off the table and it would be tackling the budget challenges through cuts.
Bush said he never had any intention to sell the GOAB and that it was always intended to be a lease back arrangement but that the details of the proposal were misreported in the media. The premier stated that the expression of interest that was circulated by GIS offering the freehold was not approved by him as the building was never for sale. However, given the circumstances now, he said that he would no longer be seeking a private finance partnership on the building but would be examining cuts in public expenditure instead. During today’s meeting it was estimated that more than $12 million could be removed from the deficit in the last quarter of 2009/10 if salaries and benefits were cut as suggested by the premier in his recent statement to the Legislative Assembly.
Bush warned, however, that without the sale of the GOAB it would now mean the remaining loan payments would stay on the government’s books for 2009/10, resulting in the deficit reaching as much as $100 million and requiring far greater cuts.
The deficit prediction was changing all the time, the premier noted, as government received various information from revenue sources, but presently it was estimated at over $62 million. With the need to find the cash for the schools projects as well as the GOAB, it could be much worse.
The premier also confirmed that he would be going to the UK next week to discuss the budget and the much talked about Miller Report, which was commissioned by the UDP government to look at potential revenue sources as a condition of the UK’s approval for borrowing to balance last year’s budget.
Following this morning’s long meeting with the public sector’s senior management, the premier said they were all well aware of what was required of them.
“The civil service know what cuts have to be made and they have gone away to consider what can be done,” the premier said. “We have had some very good discussions and we are now working through the cuts that can be made to reduce the deficit. Next week I will be going to London to discuss the challenges and the recommendations in the new Miller Report.”
He said that at this stage it was not necessary to call a Finance Committee meeting as requested by independent MLA for North Side MLA Ezzard Miller. Bush said that there was “no need to do it as managers in the civil service knew what needed to be done.” If he was not satisfied, however, the premier said he would call a meeting. Bush dismissed the comparison of the failure of the civil service to realize the 6% cuts when asked by the previous administration to the current situation and suggested the claim was unfounded.
“They are a pack of liars,” he said, referring to the PPM and added that they had failed to bring forward any solutions to the budget problem and the reason why there was a budget deficit in the last fiscal years was because they had overspent. “I am not confident that I could sit down with the PPM and move forward as they have no solutions,” he said. “I don’t have the time to waste. I am not going to allow them to play politics with this country.”
The PPM has been insisting since the 2009/10 budget was brought to the Legislative Assembly that Bush should negotiate with the UK to allow the CIG to spread its deficit like every other Western economy hit by the recession through planned borrowing, giving government a breathing period.
Alden McLaughlin, the former education minister, told CNS on Wednesday that the PPM had not yet seen the contents of the Miller report but believed this was behind the government’s sudden move towards cutting public sector costs. “We understand the premier has had the Miller report for several weeks now and we don’t know why it is being withheld from the country, especially as it seems the move to cut civil service pay is as a result of the content of that report,” McLaughlin said, adding that it allegedly criticises government for not tackling civil service cuts in this fiscal year’s budget.
Bush admitted at a recent press briefing that he had seen the report though he has not yet revealed its contents. It was undertaken by former Ronald Reagan aide and conservative economist, James Miller III, along with former UK Conservative MP, David Shaw. It is no surprise, therefore, that the conclusions, if speculation is correct, point to dramatically reducing government spending.
The professional assessment was aimed at diversifying the government’s revenue base and was commissioned as part of the conditions imposed on the CIG by the UK to extend the country’s borrowing beyond the limits established under the Public Management and Finance Law.
The commission was expected to look at where and how Cayman can generate more cash for government coffers and how that will impact the economy, as well as look at cuts in the operating budget. Miller was also said to be examining estimated government revenue sources and expenditures for the 2009-10 budget year, and recommending measures to ensure it will balance.
Category: Headline News
TRADE unions and SICK OUT!
ok – if you have 2 kids a wife and right now your making 3.500/month …means next payday there will be at least 675 $ (or even more) missing.
this will have a dramatic impact on cayman’s families and the already
destroyed motivation/moral of the majority of civil servants!
don’t even think about the long therm impact regarding mortgage or other loan payments.
good luck fighting the crime and getting this country back on track!
"Salary cuts for all civil servants making $3,000 or more per month. (five per cent for those making $3,000-$4,499; All public servants making $3,000 or more per month would have to pay 50 per cent of their healthcare costs. Those costs range from about $350 per month for single workers to more than $1,000 per month for employees with families."
(compass from today)
MLA’S salaries are way over what is expected of any good leader to serve the peoples of their own country.
Yes is understandable that they as leader cut their salaries in times of so much need.
Most of them just had the blessing of being voted to lead and help the people,this blessingalso came with the blessing of very huge salarie.
Would not be more human on all of them that have such blessing to make adjust their salaries to the real situation of the country,intead of taking more off the hard,long time civil servants that have worked with out getting a raise for so many years,while they all are getting 3 times the pay in just one election,still when a civil servant retires would not even get enouhg to pay their bill and feed the familie,while all MLA’S would get for life RETIREMENT OF ONE HOUNDRED THOUSAND A YEAR.
DON’T TAKE NOTHING FROM YOUR CIVIL SERVANTS,TAKE MORE OFF THE NEW AND EVEN RETIRED MLA’S AND EVEN BACKBENCHERS AND MANY OTHERS OUT THERE THAT GETS HUGE SALARIES FROM GOVERMENT.
Whats the difference between working for the Civil Service and in the Private Sector. In the Civil Service irrerspective of how well you do your job there is no possibility of fantastic pay increases etc when the times were good.
Just because times are not so good there is a feeling that everyone share the pain. Unfortunately Civil Servants did notshare the wealth so cannot be blamed for taking the stance they have.
I would like to see the amounts paid to the Cayman Finance leaders over the last 10 years including bonuses. I think you would then understand why they are seeking anyone but themselves to bail out the country.
If you wish you were an expat then be one, go work in another country and prove to yourself what can you do. Or if you are not prepared for that, then go find a job in the private sector and pay for healthinsurance and pension like most of us. If you do find a job in the private sector then you will be doing a great service to the country by helping reduce cost, if you don’t find a job then that says it all about your salary….
Yes then you would have the pleasure of having to pay for your childs education. You would have considerably less money than you do now
I am a hard working civil servant who is now facing a 32% cut in my monthly pay. (10% paycut, 10% additional ‘cut’ due to medical premiums, 12% cut -pensions) with no notice and no change in working conditions/expectations. someone tell me why my employer is soo confident i will stick to this job!.
He is not, in fact he wants many civil servants to find a job in the private sector as there is simply no money to keep paying all the civil servants. If you can’t find a job then you shouldn’t complain about your reduced salary that by the way is not gong to be -32%, 15% if we are very very lucky
"someone tell me why my employer is soo confident i will stick to this job!."
Do us all a favor, please leave.
It is sickening to constantly read and hear the civil service bashing that goes on in this country. While, like in any large organisation, there are some under performers, to use those few bad apples to generalise about the performance of the civil service body is ignorant and simply not right. If all civil servants behaved as they are being painted this country would have come to a grinding halt many moons ago.
Many in this society should take a step back and think about the good job that the majority of civil servants do in the face of sometimes almost impossible circumstances. I know that there are instances where you have one person performing multiple roles because of their department being short staffed or lacking other resources. Of course the effect is that one person can hardly do the best job expected in all of those positions. That is only one example of the impossible situation that many civil servants find themselves in but they work their unpaid overtime anyway, neglecting their families and risking their health (yes often without meals) to keep our country going. I know quite a few civil servants who foolishly sacrifice themselves just to get the job done for all of us and I am tired of the constant broad brush bashing of the civil service on a whole.
Of course John Public does not see that, and I suppose in many instances does not want to see it, but I suggest that rather than bashing the civil service maybe you should start looking deeper and find the many overworked, underpaid and unappreciated civil servants who do the best that they can do each day to serve us the public, in some pretty bad circumstances, and despite the demoralising comments and criticism from the ungrateful public they serve. Yes, there are big pay cheques at the top positions of government, they made sure of that I guess, but there are many who are terribly underpaid too and some even have to work extra jobs to keep food on their tables. So, please take a day and try to walk in their shoes and you may find that you arrive at a different point of view.
In essence what you’re saying is you know some civil servants don’t perform their tasks. Maybe you know some. What we take exception to is…..why are they still there? If you know, and others know, they are irrelevant? The reason being, as you probably know also is that they are impossible to fire. That is one major difference between the civil service, and the private sector. The other major difference is that pension investment is not only guaranteed to be protected from any falls, contributions are entirely paid for with a wage allowance equivalent to the employee’s contribution. As well as the provision of free medical insurance.
The other difference is none of us have had cost of living increases, at all, because we aren’t represented by "associations." Or that dirty word unions.
And have taken pay cuts to preserve our jobs.
But biggest factor is, through all the increases in fees, etc. we are being asked to subsidize time and again a work force which, although it may not be evenly distributed, is massively overstaffed. Which should be obvious by comparing to every other country of this size.
We won’t even begin to mention how pissed off we are to hear about the theft of petrol by civil servants and ex-civil servants while a hefty portion of our wages go to pay for fuel for our cars so we can get to work.
Sum it all up and it may appear to be civil servant bashing but in fact we’re trying to drag you folks in for a taste of what we have to do to pay for your wages and benefits. Including the good civil servants and the bad civil servants.
INDEPENDENTS NEED TO GET BUSY AND OFFER THEIR SOLUTIONS.
Bodden .T. you know I have to agree with you.
My two bits is this. and I am only concerned with mi own backyard. That is the district of Bodden Town.
Tell me someting, whaa a go on up yaw anyway. Mi naw see The One man Band PPM, me naw see The two man band UDP an me naw see none dem pon de fence whey aw call Indepndent. Whey una is anywhey?
Hiding untill next election? Well I guess if that is it, then can only say cheerio until next time. See ya.
I’m a civil servant and am willing to make the sacrifice for my country and take the cut, but only on one condition, that Ken Jefferson steps down as Financial Secretary and someone more capable take over the wheels.
That is the only way I will have confidence that this will actually make a difference in the Finances of the Country and that we will be better off moving forward.
you must be a well-off paid civil servant…
ANON 13:47 you’re full of………
ARROGANCE AND IGNORANCE MAKE A DEADLY COCKTAIL
"If civil servants sicked out you know what would happen? Nuffink. "
Example: teachers are among the lowest paid, along with our nurses, firemen etc. Pay cut to a salary that has been frozen for 9+ years is a big deal….. so in reply to your statement above… if teachers sick out …… what would happen ??? Give that a think !!!!!!!! Yes, teachers are there at 7:30 to start the day with YOUR children and many times at 5:00 teachers are still waiting for parents to pick their children up!!!!!!
So to your statement .."If teachers sicked out you know what would happen?? It is something ………………. GO FIGURE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for your excellent post. As an older Caymanian I have to say that you have already improved my day with the clarity and structure of your writing. You and your parents and your teachers should be proud of your ability to communicate.
I have to say that I do not share your views on the performance of our Premier or his judgement in spending so much of our money on himself. Nevertheless, you make excellent points relating to the civil service, the former Turtle Farm, and CAL.
Please continue to make your views known. Once again congratulations on an excellent post.
What an excellent post!!!!! Congratulations.
If you’re a young Caymanian…how many more years until you can run for office? As you are obviously an astute young Caymanian.
But also, one thing you may have noticed is that this situation we find ourselves in didn’t happen overnight. It took years. In fact it took years of nepotism, looking the other way, and plain not paying attention. And political favors. By every political party. And remember there are only two.
So, if you needed any favors you’d have to vote for one or the other. Which people did. So the parties just traded places every so often, leaving the country and the ones who didn’t vote for them to fend for themselves for awhile.
Hey. It happens everywhere and a leader’s role is difficult, and of course you can’t please everyone. But that’s just the problem. They have run the country like a popularity contest and instead of making sound decisions were more concerned with appealing to their own blocks of voters. As an astute observer you know that is no way to run things.
The problem is, we have all had to suffer as portions of our country were neglected. There are no more favors to hand out and many of us, yourself included, are taking a much broader view of things. We are in serious trouble. The suggestions you have made make common sense and you won’t find many who disagree with them. They’re sound. But, they neglect the fact that we are still requiring the same people who got us into this mess to get us out of it.
How have they done so far? Is that light at the end of the tunnel a train?
You’ll notice that, after trying everything else, and winding up without any reasonable solution. They finally asked two very good questions of themselves. "Do you think we might be spending too much money?" and "Do you think people might think we’re making too much money?"
You see, they took the lazy way. And started a financial centre. And the money rolled in. And for awhile everyone was prosperous. And they were even more prosperous. So people thought they were doing a pretty fair job. Look at all the money!!! Everyone can work for the government, and government corporations!!! And… we’re the government!!! That was the idea anyway.
Does that sound like a disaster waiting to happen?
As we have seen financial institutions can also just get up and leave. Financial markets can fall. The whole world economy can collapse.
And because none of them, not one, looked any further ahead or anticipated anything other than the next election, and the next $14,000 per month paycheques. Only $12,000 if you’re the opposition…..
We ended up where we are today. Then, and only then, they decided to take a pay cut. And ask everyone they had hired in the meantime to take a pay cut.
To see us through these difficult times they created by getting way over extended.
Should we thank them.
You’re right…it is the cost. Then and now. Why couldn’t they have figured that out??
If you’re a young Caymanian who believes in this country I hope you do decide to enter politics. And always keep in mind what your career is. It’s leading and thinking ahead.
Your comments show you know how to do both and the country does have a future.
I am a civil servant and I believe that a reduction in salaries can be achieved provided it is done in a fair manner and only after all other means are found to be insufficient to address or current deficit. I believe Mr. Miller’s proposal is one to consider.
Cutting salaries or taking other controversial measures must be coupled with means to motivate an employee. The notion of cutting salaries or reducing employees is bound to make employees fearful, nervous or even depressed. Our civil servants should not feel threatened by the announcement of a salary reduction but instead they should be encouraged to have hope and to have confidence in our future. The despair that sets in at times like these can makean unpleasant situation worse. Therefore, we cannot afford to further depress our civil servants during such difficult times.
* This is when we need them to be hard at work, being innovative and implementing measures to increase efficiency while providing exceptional customer service.
* This is a time when they also need to be offer opportunities and not just "work much harder for much less”.
Some of the comment being posted on this media gives cause for concerns as many persons appears to have an agenda to simply ridicule our civil servants. YES we are all concerned about our current affairs but our criticisms should to be humane and constructive, would you like to be on the receiving end of some of these posts? We can be assertive with our concerns without being ill-mannered.
Let’s not attempt to negatively paint the ambitions of our civil servants with a broad brush as doing so is unjust to many hard working persons within the service. The majority of our civil servants are hard working and in several instances they are underpaid. Instead lets
In this instance, I commend the efforts of our premier. However, HIS DOMINEER IS NOT CONDUCIVE IN ADDRESSING OUR CHALLENGES. I disagree with regards to his statement "At this time I have no confidence that the PPM has anything to offer in Finance Committee. They are a pack of liars and I am not going to allow them to play politics with this country. I don’t have time to waste." Such statements give me great concern as the people of these islands duly elected all members to assist in formulating Laws, Regulations and policies. We had better work collectively to address our challenges as failing to do so could have dire consequences.
Our Premier is unbelievable – and I mean that in both senses. I no longer believe a thing he says and his actions in taking what he wants at our expense are astonishing.
How could he attend a meeting with civil servants telling them that they had to cut their salaries knowing that he has been spending our money on travelling around the planet like a prince? How could he attend that meeting knowing that our tax dollars were going into fixing up his personal residence? Shame!
Does this man know anything but spending on himself and his cronies? Shame!
10% co-pay on all outpatient visits to HSA facilities might be a further step toward aligning public & private sectors. No cost-sharing leads to abuse and over-utilization.
It is quite clear to me that the PPM’s strategy is to blog their way back into power; this is very evident from the day after the election they have been lambasting the Premier on every decision he has made since returning to power. Lets take a few minutes to retrace our steps and see how we got to this place…in 2005 a pumped and charged PPM party swept its way into power promising to be the answer to Caymans every problem. For3 years they governed with virtually little or no opposition besides a few small back and fort arguments in the house. Then came the scandals, featuring the now rising star Mr. Clifford who thought he could get away with illegally removing confidential documents from government offices while posing as a whistle blower (talk about pot cuzing the kettle black) then came the matrix fiasco, the Tom Jones fiasco, the gray listing etc…..after three years of power it became quiet clear to the Caymanian people that they had made the wrong choice in electing the PPM to goverment, after three years Caymanians were losing their high standard of living, crime started to peak at the same time the PPM was embarking on the most ambitious spending ever seen in the history of this country at the worst possible time. it is this simple, the PPM failed miserably as a government and as an opposition they still have no solutions to the problems this country faces today. Borrowing is the only thing they have brought to the table so far which in my view is a recipe for disaster. It is wise for every government to put everything on the table when trying to solved the countries problems. The issues we face are enormous and what we need is unity to solve them. Now i know the PPM faithful will try to castigate me for criticising their beloved party, it seems they are the only ones who should have an opinion today…but i will be waiting and ready for their comeback.
And which one of the cronies are you? I hope that no one is so silly as to take your "bait" intended to distract from the XXXXX that is destroying Cayman.
Why should anyone get away with spending huge amounts of our money on his personal house when many of us are in danger of losing ourlittle homes that we have worked a lifetime for?
Servants and palaces paid for with the people’s money and without their consent. Who he think he is? I don’t care where they born, any politician XXXXXXX.
People remind yourself, the trapings that the Premier is now enjoying is the brain child of the PPM period. You people only have problem with it because Mckeeva is the one enjoying them and not Kurt….
At least we could take 3 years of PPM.
NOT EVEN 1 YEAR and WE’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THE UDP!!!
Well thats kinda the same way we felt about the PPM too but at least we were mature enought to accept defeat and the fact that the people of Cayman wanted a change; something you so called educated can’t seem to come to terms with..your party got crushed big time, the people again wanted change so just deal with it like mature people and stop trying to divide this country with your hate for Mckeeva
"illegally removing confidential documents from government offices" is far better than illegally removing the people’s money from government!
Funny thing too is that he didn’t "illegally" remove the documents, he didn’t break any laws then and if he removed the documents today, he still wouldn’t have broken any laws. He breached a civil service code.
XXXXXXX
You are mistaken or perhaps just temporarily confused.
The Confidential relationship preservation law (you know the one that has been "the bane of our existence for the last 30 years") makes it an offense for any officer of a compnay to wrongfully disclose documents regarding said company (ie Cayman Airways Ltd., Turtle Farm Ltd etc).
The Commission of Enquiry conducted under the PPM’s term in office also concluded that the disclosure was not altruistic but done for self serving reasons (i.e. for political gain)
The head of the Civil Service said that the standards expected of civil servants had not been maintained.
dare i mention the shortcomings in the "truth department"
One wrong does not make another right, besides if the PPM are so better than the UDP (U know government u can trust) then why didn’t they do it better???
Dan DUGUAY whats up with this wall???….so every time we have a new Premier we have to do this…..Jesus Christ…….and they say we’re broke and want civil servants to cut their pay.
He obviously won’t be Premier much longer so who are we building a damn wall for next ?????????
Pettiness is your middle name. With all the crime that is going on and if this rumour is true, what is wrong with protecting the Premier of this country with a wall around his house? Please, people it makes you look so ignorant. Focus on the bigger picture. The leader of the PPM and others are earning big salaries for doing nothing as a useless opposition. Why aren’t their salaries reduced by 50%? That makes sense!
Pettiness? It frightens me that you don’t seem to have any sense of how dangerous corruption is.
Child, the big picture is that all the information that is slowly leaking out shows that certain politicians and their closest friends have all their hands in OUR cookie jar. With crime being a problem for all of us, I want our Premier to come up with solutions that will make us all safe, not a solution that only benefits him. He makes far more money than most of us could even dream of. Let him build his own damn wall if he wants one. Actually, I don’t want him to feel safe until every child and every adult in Cayman IS SAFE.
Oh come on. He should feel safe in his glorious district! There is no crime in West Bay. McKeeva cleaned up that district YEARS ago. That’s why they keep voting him in…. oh man…
I can’t even keep that joke up..
Maybe he’s building the wall to keep out the green iguanas.
And what did UDP do while they were in opposition? We should ask for their money back too!
Sure build a wall around his house but why include the 1.1 acres behind his house that is just empty land. If he wants that included make him pay for it. The people should only have to pay for the protection necessary to keep him safe, not to make his personal compound more valuable at the cost of the average person.
Have him make public the cost and justification ( by experts) of "the Great Wall of West Bay".
How about doing something about all those "Big Shot" retired civil servants who received all of those big pension payouts, and were hired back to the civil service and now receives a montly salary plus pension ? How about doing something about our MLA’s (55yrs and over) who has also received that "BIG" pension payout and is receiving a those huge salaries also ? Cut back on that Bushy !!!!!
WE NEED PPM AND WE NEED THEM NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
I can’t see why Mac can’t just release this report. Just like with the Cayman Finance consultant’s report, the conclusions and recommendations are clearly predetermined.
These hand-picked individuals (probably suggested by Tony Travers) are a one-trick-pony show with their mantra “free market, free market, no business taxes, tax cuts for the wealthy, the only good government is no government…”.
They do not provide objective, balanced reviews, only infomercials. We could have just Googled, cut and pasted these inevitable results and saved a lot of time and money.
So now the PPM march has forced the reversal of the Premiers GOAB decision and the Civil Servants will lose their jobs? Way to go PPM.
Do not blame the PPM, XXXX, blame the premier, he is the leader of the country & is there to solve the problems. He wanted the job, now he must do what he promised the people he would do. You see my friend, it is very easy to talk & criticize, but Mckeeva Bush is once again finding out that it is not easy to "walk the walk" (he can only "talk the talk," & we all know for sure he can talk!). He has had 10 months to sort out the problems but he has only made things worse (my good GOD, he blamed the PPM for the deficit last year, but after projecting a $5 million surplus he had to embarrassingly admit that he got it wrong by about $70 million, no big deal???). When will you spineless followers finally realise that the UDP is definitely not the answer, they are the problem? They made a complete mess between 2001 & 2005, & oh my LORD what a BOO-BOO they have made in just 10 short months!!!! Way to go UDP!
Oh lord don’t tell me you drank McKeeva’s cool aid too. Open your eyes woman/man/Baya !!!!
What’s with all the Chucky praise? He is just as inept. Tell me one good thing he did in office? Give away Cayman Airways tickets?
"……..and the walls came tumbling down"!!!!!!!!!
sorry, I meant "………and the green walls came tumbling down"!!!!!
The Chuckster’s acheivements….let me see : air arrivals from 167,000 in 2005 to 302,000 in 2008. Established the country’s first ever Tourism Apprenticeship Training Programme, introduced the PRIDE programme, increased marketing in Europe and Canada, introduced the CEPTS programme (environmental programme) for the tourism sector, standardised CAL’s fleet (all 737-300’s), Established new CAL HQs, carried out an efficiency audit on CAL which resulted in annual reduction in losses of $2M in the first two years with many more efficiencies planned (but the UDP has abandoned that project), inaugurated the New York and DC routes and re-instated the Chicago route. Shut down the non performing Houston and Ft. Lauderdale routes, inaugurated the La Ceiba route and commenced plans for opening the Panama route,………..actually I’m not doing anymore of your homework for you….go read the PPM’s Promise to Performance book and check DOT’s website for the stats…..can you read ? and you will find all of his achievements both at the national and district levels.
Go read and educate yourself nah !!!
………..and you forgot to add that he brought respectability back to the post of Tourism Minister. He made it "Honourable" to be tourism Minister once again! But not anymore!
After the devastation of Ivan the tourism arrivals could only go upwards and they are still not back to previous highs. Also, a more accurate determination of CAL performance would be the levels of subsidy each year. Take those figures and then add the previous expenses and funding to support CAL that were transferred from the airline to central govt.
Sorry…that was the specialty of Mike Adam asCEO and McKeeva Bush durimg his previous regin.
talking about that, has McKeeva Bush paid his huge bill to Cayman Airways yet? Wasn’t it something like $80,000 or so? TIME TO PAY UP MAC!
Civil Servants are you not tired of this XXXX yet?
They want us to take a pay cut but we must pay for Mac’s housekeeper (35,000), 8 foot wall around his personal house (100,000), CCTV (20,000), cuc bill (18,000), guard house at his personal house (50,000), at least 2 personal body guards ( 120,000 ) , personal driver (40,000), government vehicle + gas (maintenance @ 15,000) = we are already up to 400,000 and we have not even got his FIRST CLASS TRAVEL expenses for him +17 people …. starting to get the picture ?
Most of us live from paycheck to paycheck and now they want us to try and live on even less.
I say we should send Mac a message…. what would he do without us ? The country would basically shut down – what would you do with 10,000’s of kids if the school shut down for a few days because it had no teachers? Or the hospital had no doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers or administration? Or the fire station? How about Immigration ?
Mac needs to cut his expenses before he comes after our salary ! If not I say we set a date and we all call in sick for a day or two (no doctors note needed until day 3)!
I am not a civil servant but I agree with you completely. Mac should lead by example. All of the improvements to his house and the other benefits he is grabbing for himself are no different from the grabbing of fuel that the public pays for. The same with the highly paid "consultants" and "advisors" that just happen to be cronies of his. They should be cut before civil servants are.
I hope that you do send him the message that he, and the rest of the politicians need to lead by example and stop enriching themselves at the people’s expense.
Anon 13:47 youre full of it….
Youre on here complaining about having to take up the shortfall by paying for this and that. Well, imagine how us in the private sector must be feeling because not only are were paying for all the premier’s excursions as well, but also have to make up the shortfall for the thievings of your counterparts.
I have to contribute to pension and health insurance, you dont. If civil servants sicked out you know what would happen? Nuffink. Things in government move so slowly and with such an ineptitude that we really wouldnt notice the difference EXCEPT for the fact there’d be less of you eating hard food at 9am, less of you about to steal petrol and whatever else, less of you about with sour looks on your faces and less of you leeching off the government.
You are fed up with MacKeeva, WE are fed up with him and YOU.
Lol… "WE are fed up with him and YOU"
Please don’t classify me with your Ignorance!
The Civil Service and the Private Sector ALWAYS effects each other. If the Civil Service fail, the Private Sector will take a blow! If the Private Sector fails, the Civil Service will likewise fail.
So don’t be so fool-fool and try to cause Cayman to become divisive. It won’t work. You’re wasting your time.
Mate, when I agreed to take the job I have it was in the knoweldge that all my pension contributions would be paid and I would be given health insurance. If the job had different arrangements e.g. I was to pay 6% pension contributions, then it may have made the job uneconomic for me to take. However I took the job on the terms agreed and I expect myself and the Government to stand by their promises. No doubt if you are able to get better pay and conditions then you will move jobs.
I do agree wholehartedly with you about everyone on this Island (Civil Servants and private sector) pulling their weight. There are too many happy to sit back and not work hard for their money. It is that that has to change in my opinion.
Why not start with cutting the expenses at the prison.
While the honest person on the outside is trying to earn enough to put food on the table for their familes and pay the bills, the prisoners are living a life of luxury. Schooling and trade education,Air conditioning, DVD, TV and CD players fortheir entertainment, three meals a day choose from menu, laundry, bed to sleep on. All at our expense No wonder Northwood is overcrowded there must be a waiting list for new "guests"
The prison should be self sufficient. Do their own plumbing, building and ele ctrical repairs, grow their own food, even do their own cooking.
Prison should be a punishment not a reward
Wait a minute!! The people in prison can’t get up and go to work everyday!!
Ahhh
Well.. they’re imprisoned and they can’t get stuck in traffic for hours like we do!!!
Ummm
They don’t the have the freedom to watch their paycheque disappear!!!
I see
Ok then….all they’re allowed to do is sit around and watch TV!!!!!
Oh
Well then…..they don’t have the pleasure of doing their own laundry!!!
There
LOL…
It makes me laugh!
What will Chuckie and his PPM demonstarters be protesting now???
Mac has decided to take the sale of the government office accommodation building off the table! And he is going to deal with "cutting" the expenditures of government!
lol… way to go, Premier
That is just the beginning! Charles Clifford has him confused. First he cuts his wages which he would never have done before, then he does a complete 360 ("flip-flop") & says he is not selling or leasing the new Glass House (what an embarrassment for him), who knows what is next! I cannot count how many things he gets up and says he is doing & has to put his tail between his legs like a beaten puppy & change his mind, it is embarrassing for him & his UDP puppets!
There are two other important requests by Mr. Clifford, & they are the $1 million PR which allows foreigners to open a business WITHOUT a Caymanian partner with no need for a work permit, and then there is also the proposed new immigration policies which will hurt Caymanians & stop them from progressing in the work force! Once the premier does his customary "flip-flop" on those two issues the Cayman people will be a little more satisfied. The premier must stop with this awful habit of his where he goes to bed, has a dream (or nightmare)& announces it to the public the next day! Governing a country like that will not work.
flip flop bush… another in a long line of embarressing u turns…. in any other country he would have been forced to resign months ago….. (still better than jullianna or ppm though)
Coincidentally, I just came from a Government Department which had what appeared to be between 15-18 almost brand new looking HP Laptops sitting on desks in the open unused.
Excellent use of Public funds I would say.
Civil service salaries were established at the current levels specifically to compete with salaries in the private sector. If the salary cuts that are proposed by Mr. Bush are executed they would simple have the long term effect of motivating the best and brightest of the civil servants (and yes, there are quite a few of those) to leave the public sector and move to the private sector. The "dead weight" civil servants would of course not move anywhere since they are not ambitious and would not want to risk having to work for a change. Consequently, the public sector would become more demoralised and inefficient, causing more public distrust and more hiring of consultants to get many important jobs done, thus in the long term not saving any money.
The only way to at the same time bring salary expenditure under control and actually improve the efficiency of the public sector is to find a way to fire "dead weight" civil servants, rather than penalise all civil servants across the board – including the hard-working ones – for the sometimes sluggish results of the entire service.
As well, why are there so many statutory authorities that are operating at a immense loss (many of which were actually profitable when they were still government departments)? Could it be that these little fiefdoms have become overly bureaucratic and costly centres of nepotism that actually contribute very little to Cayman at large? Perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the logic behind the "statutory" status of some of these agencies and save all of us a lot of money?
There is no doubt that savings can be made in the civil service, but some ways of dealing with this problem are better than others. If a long-term view is taken, this is a great opportunity to make improvements and earn the respect of all, if not, the problem of inefficiency and demoralisation will simply continue.
Here Here to this person, Civil servants are VERY under-paid compared to the pivate sector, I have a hard time understanding how the government can even consider cutting the civil servants salaries when the civil sevants have not had an performanace based raise since 2001. Other than the few cost of living increases they have recieved over the years. Their salaries have basically been frozen for 9 + years, while people in simular positions in the private sector have been recieving 3 to 5% increase each year as well as a yearly bonus in most cases. Yes most private sectors may have to have 5% deducted from their pension and a deduction for health insurance if applicable, but at the same time, Most private sector companies offer great health coverage (not a socialist coverage that foreces you to use governement facilities).
In my opinion this is a great injustice to the civil servants that actually do a good job at work, for those that do not, use the appraisal system that Governement forces their Managment to conduct twice a year for something and get rid of all the low performers once and for all. Reward the good and weed out the bad. This is the perfect opportunity to do it!!!!!
Couldn’t have said it any better…. The Poor guys At the Fire Service For One Is the lowest paid as i have been told by many of them. Imagine A receptionist has a higher wage than the men and women who has to endanger their lives to save ours. And now they have to get pay cuts. Where is the boost in morale. how can they have confidence in what they do. What about the medical / ambulance crew. my my my. How Can we help them?
The best way to weed out the good civil servants from the bad ones is for McKeeva to disguise himself (keep the hopeless look and put on a wig). As a member of the public. Then go to a government office. Carry some papers. And ask for help.
Anyone who didn’t put down their blackberry and newspaper. Is one of the bad ones. Anyone who said " how may I be of assistance?" Is a good one.
Easy, huh?
But don’t do it before noon!!
If you wake them up they get grumpy.
We need to understand that the good old Premier, tends to engage his mouth before he does his brain, therefore spewing rubbish. One would have thought that before he made such decisions he should have first met with the Civil Service Assoication letting them know of his pending decisions. The Association would have been given a chance to meet with Civil Servants telling them what to expect.
You don’t just drop these sudden claims on people who have mortgages, loans and other expenses and who have to budget themselves on a monthly basis (living practically hand to mouth), anticipating the next months salary.
When all is said and done, are the banks, and utility companies willing to decrease their (Civil Servants) payments by the 5, 10 or 20% the wonderful Premier has allotted.
i think if PPM was still in, all of this foolishness that happening now, wouldn’t be going on today.
You are so right MacDaddy. The building was never for sale. Therefore, we fully expect you to make the necessary moves to immediately terminate the employment of the person or persons responsible for the gross misconduct that was the incorrect and unauthorized advertisement of the sale of close to 90 Million Dollars worth of Government assets.
That should be priority #1 today, GIS should be at least one staff member down by the end of the week if what you say is true.
Are you saying MacDaddy should get rid of himself! I think thats a smashing suggestion.
And if you believe anything that comes out of McKeeva da’ Deceiver’s mouth… I have a plot of land in the Cayman Trench you may want to buy…
No… not interested? How about a bridge to nowhere???
A condo on Mars…??
Just like the premier… I can keep making this crap up all day.
If our Beloved Leader really thinks that he needs a wall around his personal dwelling at the people’s expense – a wall that he no doubt plans to keep when he is no longer Premier, then perhaps he should move into a hotel in Northward. I hear that life is pretty good there and there is already a wall.
People taking fuel at the public’s expense and any Premier ordering tens of thousands of the people’s money to be spent adding value to HIS PERSONAL PROPERTY – not much of a difference if you ask me.
Come to think of it, it all makes perfect sense, the Premier spending time at hotel in Northward at our expense – seems about right.
cowards come out and stop hiding lets debate the issues in the public hope are brave enough to march?
Do not worry, that soon come! Hotel Northward!
Well I for one don’t trust anything Mac says…he’s proven time and time again that XXXXX he cannot be trusted. This lastest business he’s been going on about saying the GAB was never for sale is another blatent example.
It’s time we ban him from office!! He is the single most iressponsible politician these islands have ever seen!!! He says the contry is broke and then goes on a travelling spree begging for investors. Yes, that makes us look real stable!
He screws up the budget as predicted and causes an uprising about selling the GAB, gets his UDP people on 1 or both talkshows everyday for the past week and when the UDP propaganda machine fails, his response is to call the PPM a pack of liars!?
Well if he really doesn’t sell the building, and we can’t trust his word, only half the battle is won! We still have to get him to reverse the new immigration policies that specify positions such as senior managers key employee. Senior manager is a basic supervisory role, so that means Caymanians will be regulated to entry level positions!!
The CNS poll results show that 70% think that you should STEP DOWN!!!
Mac, XXX time for you to RETIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stay at home and face the people Mr. Premier. We are not here to fight with you but you need to start listening to Caymanians…..you are clearly in over your head and we are here to help….yes we are educated Caymanians.
You are embarrassing the country and us as a people and you need to stop the nonsense and the madness.
Whether you like Mr. Clifford or not he represents the views of many Caymanians on this immigration policy change and I would advise you to listen up….wake up…..we will not stand for this Mr. Premier !
THE MARCH !!! Democracy at work……good stuff…..now Mac how about those immigration policy changes.
If you think us young Caymanians are not walking and marching with Mr. Clifford then just watch us. We are the same ones that successive governments have spent money on to educate.
You can run but you can’t hide. We hear that you are planning on going to London next week. Stop running from us Mr. Premier !!!!!!!!!!
Remember that when that BA flightreturns with you WE WILL STILL BE HERE WAITING AND DEMANDING OUR RIGHTS !!!
Yes Mr. Premier you can indeed run but you cannot hide !!!!!!!
MARCH PEACEFULLY. I’m counting on you young people to stand up and make a difference. This is your chance to stand for something that really matters. I believe that we need someone to offer us hope. Well I didn’t see it in Chuckie but I’m proud of him for taking the lead. March, but march peacefully. Let us conduct ourselves with decorum. That will scare the pants off of Big Mac. March, march, march. PEACEFULLY.
Mac calling the PPM a bunch of liars…..bahahahahahaha! That’s a good laugh!!
XXXXXX
Lol….I remember Chuckie’s campaign songs in 2005 and 2009….."Small Axe Fall Big Tree" and "Like a Rock"
Stand firm Chuckie !
So what this is about Government building a wall around McKeeva’s house ????
So he really thinks he’s "President for Life"
Mr. Duguay/CNS please investigate this immediately for the people of this country.
Thank you !
No. The question should be "How much of OUR money did he spend to put this 8 ft wall around his house? " , "How much of OUR money is being spent on his electric bill every month to light that whole place up like a Christmas tree every night?’ and now we must buy CCTV for his house too????
Our governor doesn’t have this much security ! He has a rope across the beach.
You know you are doing your Caymanian people wrong when you feel you need this kind of security !!!!!!!!!!!
Mr. Duguay please help us!
March….march…march…march…
Thank you Mr. Clifford ! We knew you wouldn’t just sit there and watch this happen. You are our hero !
Hero? Speak for yourself fool? Look what Chuckie and his useless party did to this country. I guess small minded people stick together.
No matter how far you search or how well, you cannot find smaller minds than those non-thinking ones supporting Mac/UDP….sorry!
You are obviously not "the brightest bulb" in the room. The sale of the GAB was one of two reasons for the march.
The other equally or more important issue is the recent changes by the UDP Government to our immigration policies.
These changes will have a significant negative impact on the future of this generation and generation of Caymanians to come.
This is a very serious matter and will restrict young Caymanians to entry level positions (what Ezzard refers to asthe concrete ceiling) in the financial services, tourism and other sectors and will ultimately lead to thousands of people gaining Caymanian Status AGAIN !!!.
The UDP Government was hoping that no one would have noticed this clever move by them which they labelled as "key employees designations"
I want to see a NEW party formed with The Chuckster, Ezzard and Arden in the leadership.
We could call it the TNP (take no prisoners) party 🙂
I say Chuckie, Ezzard and Arden should be our next National Heros !!!!!!
Heroes? Good God man, you really lost it now if all you can come up with is people like this. When Chuckie was about to practically sell our port to that company without hardly consulting anyone, people blocked him too thank goodness. That really showed his integrity right?
Excellent idea!
The concrete ceiling is a joke. Young Caymanians are restricted to entry level positions because that is where are persons start when they come out of school. The expats that come down to the island, and take a manager position for example, have already worked at entry level positions elsewhere and have additional education (i.e. are CAs or qualified lawyers)and experience . If a Caymanian is qualified or has experience then they have every opportunity to move up the ranks.
Young Caymanians that expect to walk into banks, trust companies and the like, get an office and get paid US 75k+ which is also a joke. Just as it would be a joke for an expat to expect the same when coming out of high school (or receiving a lower level accounting or business certificate) back home.
To get the education required to be on equal grounds with expats, Caymanians need to go to school abroad to get the proper qualifications and world experience and then return to the island to take their rightful place in whatever line of business they choose. I am not being disrespectful to the education here but it cannot be argued that it is in line with the education available to expats in their home countries. I work with several caymanians that are lawyers that have followed this route and they are very competent and a pleasure to work it. Likewise I have worked with Caymanians that are at lower level jobs and are also competent at that level and a pleasure (and some not such a pleasure) to work with. However moving these low level employees to a higher level just because there is an opening is wrong and makes no business sense regardless of what Ezzie thinks.
The changes to the immigration policy will not affect caymanians applying for jobs for which they are qualified. It will affect caymanians that are applying for jobs for which they are not qualified as should be the case. Jobs in the financial industry (and others) must be earned and no one is entitled to a senior position based on where they were born (i.e. Cayman – and any other country for that matter).
To Anonymous Thu 12:51,Are you really familiar with the qualifications of all "the expats that come down to the islands and take a managers position"? Or are you just offering a wild and biased opinion.
I agree with you 100%
The Chuckster comes to the rescue again !!!
I know he’s McDinejad’s match.
Now listen McKeeva we know the truth. You said at least five times PUBLICLY that you were going to "SELL" the building.
The building was advertised for sale….yes the "freehold interest" in the GAB was "FOR SALE".
Now listen to me…stop blaming GIS and the civil service. They are there simply to implement government policy. You decide on policy and they implement it.
McDinejad do you really expect us to believe that civil servants would have put the $85M GAB up "For Sale" IF YOU and the UDP Government didn’t instruct them to do it and if it wasn’t your policyto sell it ??? Give me a XXX break.
Thanks again Chuckster…..keep the pressure on. All we need know is the reversal of the immigration policy changes and we’re good for the time being until the next idiotic decision.
Stick with us Chuckster.
I am asking the "Chuckster" to proceed with the protest march, but please let it not only be in protest against the new Immigration policy and the sale of Government assets, but with the new startling news that the GOAB is now not for sale (he can lie all he want, but we know what he 1st said – he had it up for sale) I am begging the Chuckster to add in to his march that we want the resignation of the Premier as he clearly does not know what he is doing and he CANNOT GET AWAY WITH LYING TO THE CAYMAN PEOPLE!
There were plenty "lies" concerning the 1st Cayman Bank issue and life carried on as if nothing happened, well it cant go so again – please Mr Premier, RESIGN!!!!!!!!
Consultants Fees: Is Mr. Bush going to revise the exhorbitant fees paid to so called "consultants" which he pays to drive around in Land Rovers & Range Rovers all day? And what are they consultants for? This needs to be looked into as well.
Is this public information under FOI?
Yes. Perhaps the press should request.
CNS: Anyone can make an FOI request. In the works is a place on CNS where we can post responses to the public’s requests. Go forth, citizen journalists!
Don’t know about Chuckie and his PPM demonstrators, but the people should still be considering a march against crime, demanding more action from government and police. I care more about that than any of this political stancing, and I get the feeling I’m not alone with that sentiment.
I do not agree with the headline. He did not meet with civil servants. He met with higher ups. People who are scared of losing their jobs and will more than likely agree with his suggestions. If he met with the regular civil servants e.g. road workers, teachers, nurses our Premier would be in hiding right now. The majority of civil servants are hard workers who are devoted to their jobs. Why should they have to take pay cuts and be expected to continue work as usual when the government can pay for big celebrations on public holidays and pay for murders to eat 3 meals a day for the rest of their lives without having to do anything to pay back their debts to society. Just a suggestion but why dont we have some of these criminals on a chain gang doing road work and cleanup instead of having to pay for these services? If they can work on a farm why can’t they work on the road? Looks to me like police has spent enough on firearms to have an armed guard supervising road works…
I am not a civil servant. Let me make that extremely clear.
I would agree with you to a point. Our first step should always be get rid of excesses and our prison has plenty of them such as TV, AC and meals. These should all be removed. We are not running a hotel, or are we?
We should cut all fringe benefits to all higher ups. We can start at Big Macs personal chef, cheuffeur, etc. These are all excesses and should all be cut. Any stupid payouts should go.
CNS: Please investigate for me if certain Government officials make an additional amount monthly to "hold" an office. The figure I heard was something like $1,000 to $2,000 monthly. This was to compensate them for having an office and being available for staff/people to speak with them or something to that regards.
Then and only then after all the fat is trimmed away start by bring Civil Service in line with the rest of the private sector:
1) Health Care paid for 50/50
2) Pension paid 50/50
Then salary cuts after it’s all said and done.
I would sit and tell the civil servants now to consider those who worked for the numerous firms such as HSBC, Walkers and others who lost not part of their salary but all of it. Some of those have not found replacement jobs as yet.
If I were Big Mac I would make an appeal to the Banks to lower interest rates as best they could for the next year as a gesture of goodwill to civil servants to help compensate for the loss in income.
The best fix in all of this is new revenue streams something Big Mac has been resisting. I still stand behind the fact that Casinos and a new lottery would help us a great deal. The new hospital has tremendous possibilities that should be addressed also.
I keep hearing that civil servants should pay 50/50 for their health care "to be in line with the private sector". Which private sector is that – the private sector of people with crap jobs maybe? I know lots of people in the private sector in Cayman who get their health care paid for (and much else too). They had good jobs in the UK or Canada or whereever and this included private health care. They expect it as part of their "package" and for this reason their private sector employers in Cayman pay it. I’ve had private health care paid for by my private sector employers in the UK for 20 years or so. Why shouldn’t i get it in Cayman when any other employer in the world would give it to me.
Mac – let us start by firing everyone that took gas without being entitled. They are criminals and have no place in Government service. If they are not Caymanian, deport them.
The remaining 50% can adopt the responsibilities of the others. There. immediate solution without any liability or political fallout. You cannot be critisized for firing a thief.
Cayman is doomed to die a very expensive death by the very people who claim to own/love it. Greed, incompetance, and no self respect. Caymanians will soon pay for their past sins by loosing the right to rule.
keep it going… start cut’s on the bottom of the food chain.
people will leave out of fear they can’t afford to pay they mortage
anymore.
The Premier repeatedly claimed that the building must be sold and was for sale and then says it was never for sale. It sounds more and more like the Premier is at odds with himself more than with anyone else. Perhaps he should seek some councelling.
If Government offered specific time contracts (i.e. 5 yrs) instead of open-ended contracts the many government employees who are not doing their jobs efficiently could be dismissed which would save a whole lot of government money. Contracts can be renewed based on performance. The private sector has to "work for our money"…so should the Civil Service.
Island girl – where did you get this "open-ended contracts" idea from?
I’m an ex-pat civil servant. I’m on a two year contract as are all my colleagues. I cannot speak for every department but the people I know from different ones are all on 2 year contracts. Of course these can be renewed but only after the position is advertised locally.
I really, really hope that Mr. Bush is not going to get away with that bold-faced lie that he never intended to sell the GOAB.
1. He has said repeatedly that it might have to be/will be sold, and blamed the PPM multiple for forcing this move through their "financial mismanagement".
2. Even if the plan all along was to lease the building back and guarantee that Government would eventually own the building…. he still intended to sell it.
3. The revenue from this sale was written into the 2009/2010 budget.
4. I refuse to believe that GIS would put out an expression of interest on the sale of a key government asset without the Premier’s knowledge and approval of the entire content.
Looking through old CNS articles Mr. Bush clearly stated thatthe building would be sold. The media didn’t misreport anything, this is 100% backpedaling.
lol…
It makes me laugh!
What will Chuckie and his PPM demonstarters be protesting now???
Mac has decided to take the sale of the government office accommodation building off the table! And he is going to deal with "cutting" and "triming" government!
lol… way to go, Premier
Well looky ya foolie….all ya have to do these days is holler ‘MARCH’ and we get action – no need to actually go out and march, just holler! That should tell you what kinda Premier you seem to be in love with! According to his blind supporters he is great at making decisions – well tell me now, which of his many decisions has he made since May 20th that he has not had to go back on?! I say march and march hard – march against the kind of mad chaotic governance that Mac and his UDP croonies have been inflicting on this Country! March in advance forthe future crazy decisions Mac and his croonies will be making cuz we all know more is yet to come! March just so Mac and his croonies know that we are not going to sit on our XXXX any longer and accept the XXXXX they are trying to dish out on us! And I could go on an on but this should be enough for you to see that we have plenty of real reasons to MARCH!
Hey Anon 09:10, you ask "which of his many decisions has he made since May 20th that he has not had to go back on"? Come on, fair is fair & I think you must be more fair, I can name many examples:
* flying 1st class to Dubai & living in a $5000 per night hotel (plus entourage)
* flying to India with friends & staying in $3000 per night hotel (with friends)
* flying to London, Hong Kong, Washington, New Zealand & other exotic vacation resorts in the pretence of "attracting" business
* personal chef/housekeeper costing government $38,000 per annum
* personal chauffeur paid for by government
* trip with friends to Canada for Olympics paid for by government
* 8′ wall around his house paid for by government
* remove red from anything in government (a MUST)
* raising fees & taxes for the financial sector which has chased away business
* and…………. I could go on but it’s getting boring.
You must really be fair, he HAS stuck to quite a few of his decisions, terrible & selfish though they are!
Do you really think this about face would have happened without the threat from a demonstration by lots of people? With his intellect, it appears that the only thing he understands & appreciates is a bigger stick weilded by many people.
What a joke that he says he did not know & approve of the "freehold" sale advert.
The effective utilisation of existing staff and Departments would really go a long way to helping turn this around. The amount of work that is contracted out to private entities despite having qualified, capable and competent persons already on staff is something that has always amazed me. Sometimes it appears to be a deliberate attempt to circumvent certain staff members, other times the ones who would prefer not to do any work are allowed to set up these contracts in order to ensure that their own workload stays light. The Public Works and Parks Departments are two of those that spring to mind but they are the easy ones to pick out. There are plenty of others out there contracting out their work too.
There is a culture within the Civil Service, a mindset which needs to be rectifed immediately. It needs to be acceptable to let the dead weight (and believe me, there is plenty of it) go without fear of retribuition and long drawn out proceedings. People who don’t work, don’t do or are not capable of doing what they are hired to do need to be fired. Simple. Problem is that it’s not that simple. It is near impossible to fire a Civil Servant, so why therefore do you think that so many do so little? Because they can, it’s human nature.
In reality, the working conditions are not as good as people would like to make them out to be, perhaps except for the privileged few. The lack of resources, which looks like it will only now be compounded by further cuts are already a major problem within many sections of Government, not least of which being our Public Schools.
It doesn’t help of course that many of our Caymanian Teachers who have been in the profession for a number of years are being paid less than the new Contracted Officers being employed on the revised salary scales. Where really is the motivation when you end up spending parts of your own salary on the resources you need to teach effectively every month?
Those who belittle from afar I’m quite sure at some point may have the opportunity themselves to join the Civil Service. If it was really all that they would be right here in the trenches with the rest of us. I’m here to tell you that the smart ones got out when they could, went to the Private Sector and now enjoy the salaries, working conditions and benefits they recieve far more so than when they were in the "cushy" Civil Service.
How is The Premier going to justify the expense of walling in his compound in West Bay, over 2 acres, with an 8 foot wall at the peoples expense.
I am not sure what the expense is but it should approach close to CI
100,000.00 and over one acre of this is empty land with nothing to protect.
I am not against protecting the Premier but can these cost be justified as he is asking the Public Servants to take a Pay cut and the country is hurting financially.
I am sure thevalue of this wall well exceeds his pay cut.
Has a study been done to find out the risk and the correct way to provide needed protection. Maybe leaving out the back empty lots could save the people a lot of money. and Will he give the wall back after his term in office?? Or is this another perk he gets to keep?
I sure hope he got planning permission!
I’m pretty sure an 8 foot wall is not permitted under present planning laws.
My understanding is that CPA approved it at their meeting on Wed. So he does have planning permission as an exception granted by the CPA.
Did he apply before they approved it, or is this friend friend at its best.
Justification is easy. All he has to say is that we live in dangerous times and the Premier of the country should be protected. Any sensible person would find that reasonable. Also, living in West Bay he probably requires and extra degree of protection.
Why do you think he has not been pushing to have a Premier’s Residence?
While he is Premier he can have his own compound walled, have gates and guard houses installed, install CCTV, put up flag poles etc. and charge it all to the people.
Once he has done everything he can think of to his personal residence at the people’s expense then he demand to be moved to a more secure location where it will be easier to protect and feed him.
He might use theterm foo foo a lot, but he ain’t foo foo.
Urgent…..urgent…….urgent…..urgent…….urgent…….urgent………
i sure hope that if this is so (the bldg’n of the great wall) that it’s @ HIS EXPENCE, &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& NOT!… of the PEOPLE
Any wall built over four feet requires planning permission. No doubt he does not have it. Moreover I wonder if the neighbours have a right to object to its height. I also think that the cost of $100,000 is very conservative.
8 foot wall? I thought planning only allowed 4 foot walls? or is it that you can get special permission to build higher than 4 feet? Just curious?
When trying to balance a budget, their budget, my budget, your budget. Anyone’s budget, even a business which the government to all intents is. The place to start is having made a fair projection of what your income vs. expenditures will be. If that is uncertain, which it is for many businesses, and indeed it is for all of us given the economic climate. Then the next place to examine is what you do know, and have some control over.
Your expenditures.
Of course we’ve all had to do this for quite awhile. Almost forever it seems. That is how we balance our budgets. Meaning every working person and every business.
They began at the wrong place, with an unrealistic projection of revenue, badly in fact, the present government finally seems to be getting that.
Because you can project expenditures, and you can actually do something about them. Although it isn’t nice but it is realistic.
Welcome to our world. But we could have told you all of this earlier. In fact we did! Cut your expenditures.
Of course it also helps to have your accounts completely audited and up to date – any projections prepared without these are completely useless!
I applaud The Premier for making the bold move of cutting salaries; better something than nothing at all. Glad to hear the sale of the new GAB is taken off the market. Now that just didn’t make any sense. Now I wonder how the imminent march influenced the ‘no sale’ of the GAB? Hmm!
Why is Mac back pedaling on the sale of GOAB? Sounds like he hasn’t a clue what he is doing.
With a $100 million dollar deficit in order these islands are really up the creek.
Every morning that we awake we have to give God thanks.
Every morning that we awake the Premier has another story for us, he is now blaming the miss information on GIS which was not approved by him. He is amazing!! When Jesus was being crucified, he said "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" Father forgive the Premier!
The gentle man is leading our country and can not either get his information correct before going to the press, or he is simply not making inacurrate statements, I have to lay the blame on his speech writers, someone has to be blamed, BUT DEFINATELY NOT HIM!
Please Ministers Scotland, Anglin, O’Connor, and Adams, I don’t hear your ministries issuing in accurate information, I don’t hear you all coming out one day with information than a few days later the story is changed. Come on now! how much longer are you fine reputable Caymanians men and woman going to allow him as your leader, is this what you stand for, is this what I cast my vote for, where is your stance?, where is your backbone?
I know the country is in dire needs, but please come to the country with ACCURATE information, NO more of this ad hoc as foolishness.
I suggest the GOAB is no longer for sale/lease is as a result of the planned March, interesting, you better watch out the civil servant don’t plan one, and you know their strength is in numbers, thatcould crush the whole Government.
Mr Mckeeva, I am happy that you have been practical and listeninhg to the public sentiments and also the recomendations made by the Miller Report.
The Public has always said that the Civil Service has to brought down to size. Many of us who have to deal with them regularly including at Satutory bodies like the HSA and , Licensing etc to name a few, realise many posts could be me made redundant . That way the the remaining employees would perform better and manage their timebetter to provide a better service. Definately the present sytem in the Public Service of more the numbers for better service is false. A user survey done would prove that .
Please donot forgot the Stautory bodies– many of them are a drain on public coffers with their inefficiencies and beuracratic size.
A classic example is the HSA.Look at the size of the administration which in turn is creating more administration. We the Public got a better service when the size and layers of the administration was smaller. More of the health care dollar was spent on real patient care. Now it seems to be the opposite and the mushrooming cancerous administration is eating more into it leaving less for real patient care.
Some of those administrative posts need to be made only part time with clinical staff taking on those responsibilities. The money saved could be used fgor real patient care services and buying of new equipment. including diagnostics like MRI etc. The other day, I was asked to go off site to have a MRI scan done to help the doctor with my diagnosis.Ordering the scan was the right thing, but going offsite does not make any business sense. I am sure if the administration adds up, i have my doubts, they would realise that we pay moreot for the scans every year than the cost of a new machine. Why is the Board, who I gather is composed of accountants etc not asking the administration the right questions . I have my doubts as I feel that they are being given only controlled information . I am sure theMinister, Mr Scotland, who is a successful and smart businessman is alo being told the same controlled and beautiful story . If he was given the truth, he would have realised that it is not sustainable . Please wake up sir, as you will be held accountable by the public who voted with good intentions to clean up and run the HSA like you did with your private business.
This could go on and on. By intention is only constructive to open eyes and get a meaningful attempt to save this country from financial ruin.
An advice to the senior management of the HSA, can you cut back on pictures and travel — another trip to Cayman Brac to open a reconstructed wing. The Mr. Scotland and Mrs Julianna could have done and asked the other distingusished guests from Grand Cayman like thge Medical DIrector to stay behind to save travel costs etc. This only supports many of our beliefs that some of these posts , like the Medical Director, need not be fulltime . He has plently of time from what I rsee from the rect news clipping of his trip to Haiti etc that he has a lot of free time. Gentlemen, every openny saved counts in these hard times.
If the elected government does not do it,let us all join in prayer and hope god saves us.
What is Mac hiding? .
The Cayman people deserve to see this report NOW!!!
I am not calling him a liar, but he is very reckless with the truth. If the country had a dollar for every reckless use of the truth by the Premier, we wouldn’t need to cut Civil Servants salary to balance the budget, in fact, we would have a significant surplus.
Mr. Premier, you can fool those on the outside with these utterances, but how do you think those on the inside who know the truth look at you and feel about you as our leader?
Perhaps something to ponder while you’re in Cuba
MacKeeva it is high time you stop this crap about PPM this and PPM that. You are the Premier, much to my regret, so get on with the business of being responsible and ACT Responsible. When I heard you on the radio in the LA, I got to admit that you are quite out of order!! You have to listen to people and their ideas, they ALL have this country at heart. You cannot expect to control the PPM, like how you controls the educated members of the UDP. You MacKeeva have to learn to control yourself. Concerning the cuts within the Civil Servants, first of all consolidate the Financial controlling Unit and have only 1 Manager reporting to the Financial Secretary, yes that means getting rid of those Foreign Nationals that heads up all the various Financial Units. Then that way, everyone will know what is going on within the various Units of Government. Then fine comb the Units to see where you can scale back and consolidate those that are probably duplicating duties. Impliment a docu-sharing/scanning Unit, which can save on a lot of paper wastage. Then outside of the Civil Service you can put Boatswaine up for Sale, but first seperate it from the Turtle Farm. Entertainment and turtles don’t mix and may be the root cause why there a reduction of egg laying by the turtles and while you are at it, reduce thestaff count there. Start charging everyone over the age of 18 an annual head tax of $50. Start charging school fees for every child in the Public Schools like before. Start taxing everyone, making a monthly salary of $8,000 and over. Start taxing those properties valued over $1mio and the Real Estate Companies as well on every sale they make. Sell your Ritz Condo and give back that money to Government to compensate for the concession which you gave them up front. Any Civil Servants being paid $5,000 and less should not have to give up any salary, they are already suffering with all the other fees hikes. MacKeeva you can learn to work with the PPM members as they are Caymanians with very good ideas too and NO they were not the only ones contributed to this financial situation, remember they were only in for 4 years and spent about 2 years cleaning your mess up and Ivan’s mess, before they could get started on their own agenda, so stop pointing fingers at them ONLY. You contributed big time also to this mess, as well as the world is in a recession now and probably be in it for another 2 years or so. Stop these childish antics of yours and startacting like a Premier should act, with dignity and creditability. Every where I go I am hearing the foreign workers and the locals alike, making fun of you, because of your disgraceful acts. Stop it man because you are disgracing all your people and I feel so ashame of you. Stop it MacKeeva andGrow up!!! Remember you have Grand Children and they will learn all about you later on. Thread carefully man.