Mac spends $1.1m on advice
(CNS): According to a granted freedom of information request made by a CNS reader, the country’s premier has spent $1.152,711.21 on consultants and advisors since taking up office. The money was used to buy a number of different services and advice relating to his areas of responsibility, from tourism to financial services as well as on the Miller Commission, which conducted the review of government revenue and operation, and ranged from as little as $1,500 to over $300,000. The two highest amounts went to the law firm Sidley Austin LLP, which represents Cayman’s interests in Washington, and Focus Corporate Service, a local firm which has advised the premier on financial services related matters.
According to the information revealed by the information manager from the premier’s ministry, over the first 18 months in office the premier employed Atwater Consulting Ltd, a locally based public relations firm, for consultancy on tourism related matters costing over $21,500. Legal firm Bird & Bird LLP were paid less than $3,500 for negotiations on air services agreements, while over $200,000 went to New York based lawyers Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw in connection with the Open Skies negotiations.
Innotiva Ltd, a locally based consulting firm, was paid $1,500 in connection with the young nation builder’s programme, and just over $35,000 was paid to Clyde Mascoll, the former leader of the Democratic Labour Party in Barbados, for the budget speech preparation. $160,000 was paid for the Miller Commission, which produced a report on government revenue and expenses early last year. Jannet Tomaski, a Caymanian based in Tampa, was also paid over $48,200 for what was described as “CIG liaison in Florida”.
The two largest amounts were to local consultancy firm Focus Corporate Service, which was paid $325,303.97 for consultancy on financial related matters, and $349,601.03 was paid to Sidley Austin LLP for their representation of Cayman’s interests abroad.
See FOI request below.
Category: FOI
So, basically, these people writing the reports and advising the Premier are the ones running the country. Mac is just the figurehead/mouthpiece.
Why don’t we elect someone that knows what they are doing?
HUH!!??
Has anyone done an FOI on JuJu’s consult fees? Namely the man who drew up the plans for the badly designed “9 mil Hurricane shelter” on the Brac? Wonder how much he (or his company) was paid?
The inherent danger with offering unadvertised contracts for services to Government is that at some stage the people might begin to surmise that part of the contract is being “kicked back”.
The real danger is when it actually happens.
Only a foolish leader wouldn’t take advice! Well done Premier!
PAYING for it doesn’t mean he’s either GETTING it or TAKING it now does it?
PAYING for advice and receiving value for it and TAKING advice are not all necessarily the same, are they?
Only a foolish electorate would not express anger when a large amount of money is paid to cronies without any tendering process.
I spoke yesterday to a couple of civil servants in Mac’s ministry. They were glad the news of the money to Mrs Tomaski for “CIG liaison work in Florida” had become public as there was outrage among civil servants in the ministry at wasting such a large sum on this particular person for this particular (non) purpose. Thank God for FOI exposing this tawdry political patronage.
considering the major budget mess in 2009 when the new government came into office, what had to be done and the nasty talks and meetings with the fco, and the fact that this situation of a 81 mil deficit has been turned around to be potentially a surplus within 2 years, i wont complain too much about some consultancy fees for assistance.
what i have a REAL issue with is that crime has not been addressed, and the fact that north sound dredging still seems to be coming up despite local opposition to it. maybe we should have some consultants in THOSE areas.
We ALREADY HAVE consultants in these areas. Just very simply go on the internet and type in ‘Cayman News Service’. WHEN will the voice of the CAYMANIAN PEOPLE, the same people that HE WORKS FOR, EVER be ENOUGH for xxxx???
here is an idea!
why don’t we get some more foi info on just about every consultant arrangement that is entered into by the government? in every department etc. That way we can run other stories that are really non stories for the mere benefit that bloggers can be entertained and make lots of nasty and entertaining comments about the companies or principals with no regard to whether they provided value or not. just a thought..
if this money had been spent on purely foreign consultants we would have never heard a peep about this story or see some of these blog comments. typical cayman….
there are some good local sources that can teach us about this colonial mentality that we have here..i am thnking mr roy bodden and others who write about this stuff can teach a ting or 2.
“Good local sources……”
Is Jannett ($48,000 CIG liaison with Florida) Tomaski one of them, do you think?
It seems to me that most of the ‘peeping’ is concerning the fact that most of this money went to ‘family and friends’ with questionable value received, rather than to people like Mr. Roy Bodden, who, incidentally, would more than likely be very happy to share his very considerable knowledge with his Caymanian people at NO COST TO THEM. WAAAAY too simple folks. It seems to me that the Caymanian people have every right in this world to ‘peep’ about this. It is also relieving to see that the Caymanian people, for once, are not ‘peeping’ about the majority of this money going to ‘foreign’ consultants, or about the even MORE questionable value that we normally get from THEM. Perhaps we should be calling that an ‘improvement’ on the part of the UDP?
It really is not that much money.
A bit less money to friends and relatives would be nice. And perhaps not spending a salary’s worth on getting someone to wrie a speech.
But otherwise not that bad really.
Is Midnight a reference to the amount of light making its way into your cranium? When people who do good work for government and the people of the Cayman Islands lose their jobs in order to "save money" and then that money is given to friends and relatives of friends of those in power, then that is WRONG and if it were only a penny, it would still be indefensible.
Bad is bad. ‘Not that bad’ is a personal assessment probably in a futile attempt to rationale your vote in the last elections. It is STILL bad.
Sitting & reading this FOI article makes me wonder who could have created the STIMULUS PLAN for big Mac & how much it costed tax payers. During my listening to Big Mac present this plan to the the country via radio broadcast, I thought to myself that this could have been thought of, created and presented as COMPETENTLY by a group of intelligent grade 3 students.In my most valid opinion, the contents of this plan seemed to portray the scenario of a FOOL attempting to push-start a semi- disabled vehicle from the bottom of a hill going upward with the intention of getting it started & having it continue uphill under its own power.I also wonder if all other advice that Big Mac sought,evaluated and heeded to equated to the one of the SIMULUS PLAN.Not just being a critic of the premeir for the hect of doing so but I can not see the possibility of seeing at least 30% of the contents of this plan having a positive effect on the economy of THESE islands and wonder if he is seeking his consultants & advisers from the A..hole part of the world. What a mess! I’m thinking that WHEN we (the mess makers & cleaners) see the need to clean THIS mess up that it would have grown into a life threatening & in-curable disease. Rather than depending on the incompetence of the R.C.I.P to crush the serious problem of crime we now encounter that’s destroying our tourism & finance product he should try seeking constructive consultation & advice on how to most effectively perform this huge task before we are completely flushed down into the septic.
With every bit of respect due to you, my friend, we ALREADY have a life threatening if not ‘incurable’ disease. We have ALREADY been flushed down the toilet, yet if we act like frogs that I have seen being flushed down the toilet yet come back to reclaim their spot on the toilet seat, we might yet survive. Nobody said it was easy swimming in s_ _ t.
Now we all understand. The consultants sure received a STIMULUS but the rest of the country is yet to see one – oh I forgot, the reduced price for turtle meat! Lol.
This is a purely hypothetical question of course, but might it be that certain politicians encourage the donation of "free" election campaign work with the understanding that lots and lots and lots of spurious government funded non-tendered but highly paid "consulting" work will flow once they are in office? After all it is well known that certain politicians like consultants that they "can work with".
You hit the nail on the head. That’s one way of them getting around Central Tenders Committee, but then again, they should tender for consultants too. Oh well, we all know, with UDP, there are no rules, no laws, no regulations – just do as you wish and live like the wild, wild west.
Why do we Caymanians stand by and take this crap – USD 35K for a budget speech, doesn’t the premier have three (3) chief officers + the financial secretary in his ministry that could easily assist him in preparing a speech.
At the rate Mr. Boyles is charging he’s going to bankrupt the very government he’s advocating should be trimmed. How can the premier justify this as being good value for our dollar?
This further demonstrates the premier is lost and if we don’t do something soon, we will all be lost as well.
I think it’s about time we get a petition signed by 51% of registered voters and present it to the governor and request early elections, 2013 is too far away to further risk these Islands going down the drain.
CAYMANIANS LET’S MAKE IT OUR BUSINESS TO GET RID OF MCKEEVA AND HIS GOVERNMENT ASAP.
What this says to me is that McKewer doesn’t really run this country. His consultants do. We the people cant do a thing about it. Not a thing!!! He spends so much time off the island so we dont see how stupid he is 100% of the time. It is clear that we dont want this man running the country, but….well like I said we cant do a thing about it. What a shame. We are just about totall screwed now. The crime continually escalated until a tourist got stabbed and another couple got robbed on the beach. Oh then Mckewer found the crime “intelerable”. Yeah he didnt care about the murders and robberies until the precious tourism product was threatened!!
Remember the days when Chuckie spent 2-3 million in one lick to produce the never used Lufthansa plans…now that was money well spent..lol
There is no future in the past, my friend, and that is obviously where you live your life. We need to start thinking about the future we don’t have, and won’t have as long as we continue to allow THIS government to continue on its idiotic, egotistic rampage into some huge black hole somewhere in never never land. Blaming Chuckie and the PPM is NEVER going to get us out of the hole that people like you and the entire UDP so ignorantly and so tenaciously insist on burying us all in.
There’s an odd belief that you more you pay consultants the better they are. In truth, the more you pay them the more likely they are to tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to know.
If you really want consultants who know what things are like at grass roots level I’m happy to volunteer my services and I come cheap. Reasonable accommodation, enough money to keep me in food and booze plus an basic car to drive is all I need. I’m even happy to fly economy.
And what can I offer –
PR/Press experience with a UK County Council that employs over 40,000 staff and covers 1,400 square miles.
Hands on investigative and enforcement experience working in the same areas as the HIC and NPO.
Extensive experience of FOI.
Detailed knowledge of Human Rights legislation, both as it is written and as it is enforced.
Private security experience including the use of firearms.
More than 10 years in the dive industry.
A good working knowledge of the worldwide tourism industry from a consumer’s point of view.
Nearly 20 years visiting and working in the Cayman Islands.
Plus a lot more.
For CI$48K a year I’d be happy to come over as a roving consultant but I guess that’s too cheap to be credible and you probably wouldn’t like some of the advice I might give?
"you more you pay"
"an basic car"
"Extensive experience of"
You get what you pay for.
You obviously totally and completely missed the point, my friend. We’re guessing you were probably one of those that voted for UDP?
I think you are right as the majority of your comment seemed to be a detailed, self – important and illiterate application for a consulting position.
Seeing his lack of knowledge and the state of affairs, sadly, but truly, he should be spending more than 1.1 million on consultants and people to give him advice.
The problem is..not even the1.1 million is showing any results. Could it be he is seeking advice from his own kind? At that price?
Interesting, but not nearly the full picture of what is going on as the request only referred to the Premier’s Ministry and the Cabinet Office.
In order to get the complete picture on how much the "consultants" were actually paid from OUR MONEY for their "services", it would be necessary to look at whether invoices were split across multiple ministries and portfolios by individuals or companies linked to these consultants. Money tends to leak from more than one wound if people don’t pay attention. The people also be enlightened if they understood the level of "free services" provided to politicians and the party by the same individuals who are "consultants". If people are outraged by these expenditures I suspect that they would go ballistic if they had the full picture.
Wow… advice and consultants are always needed…what the big fuss… this is a GOOD FIGURE compared to the advice and consultants needed by uk politicians. And I can’t imagine the god-zillians of monies David Cameron is paying for his
As Tina Turner would say, ‘what’s David Cameron got to do with it’? Do you really believe the UK politicians would be a few hundred million MORE in the red if it weren’t for their ‘consultants’? Do you really believe we are at least 1.1 million better off because of these consultants? Do you really believe Mac is actually TAKING advice from these ‘consultants’? Sorry to disappoint you but that’s not the Mac that I know…
Interesting. The Hon Premier spends 1.1 million on consultants in 18 months to try to save a country that was in financial disaster both locally and internationally, 15% of which was spent on the Miller Report that the British Govt. said HAD to be done and we are whining! Maybe if we had whined earlier when the PPM were spending we would not have had the 81 million dollar deficit they left plus the 40 million they spent from the surplus left by the former Govt. (headed by the now Hon Premier) not to mention the 400 million they borrowed between 2005 and 2009. That 1.1 million kept CAL in the air and saved us from the International fallout we were headed for. Lets givecredit where credit is due: The Hon. Premier saved us from income tax and from the British Govt. taking over like they did in Turks and running our affairs! In the first six months of this financial year thereis a surplus of 17 million. I know we are not out of the woods but surplus is a word we have not heard in awhile and I for one didn’t think we would hear for awhile so if 1.1 in consultancy fees accomplished that it was money well spent! It may have well been the best money we ever spent!
What McKeeva has been fairly successful in getting the likes of you to NOT understand is that we have MUCH NEEDED VALUE for the (reported by the UDP) 81 million dollar deficit that the PPM ‘left behind’. He also has obviously been fairly successful in convincing the likes of you that there is actually a 17 million ‘surplus’ somewhere. Would the premier very kindly please reverse at least some of the atrocious tax hikes that have been forced on the very ill affordable middle and lower class sectors of our community if indeed we are now reporting a ‘surplus’ thanks to the sickening pillaging of our less than wealthy general populace???
Lol…1.1 million??? That is all the FOI can muster against the Premier??? I wonder how much is the surplus compared to the 1.1 drop in the bucket? Well done Mac!
Did you mention SURPLUS?! OK, let me guess…you’re from West Bay…and you got a new fridge in 2008, right?
I cannot believe the ignorance displayed in this forum for the attacks on McKeeva. The world today is incredibly complex and what do you think McKeeva is going to ask the callers on Talk Today?
And the statement,” Back in the day our leaders made their own decisions. Please wake up into the 21st century.”
I applaud McKeeva for wanting sound advice before making a move that could negatively impact the country. At least after McKeeva gets the advise and the thought process he is willing to make a decision and get things moving.
Sometimes the arm chair quarterbacks in these forums irk me with their big talk when they have nothing on the line, not even their names.
I think of all the wasted money in consultants where nothing was done with the information because those in power didn’t have the courage to make a decision. Now that is a waste.
but now ask yourself what has be done or achieved over the last 2 years????
The government has managed to avoid direct taxation for the country which given the situation was no small feat or perhaps you advocate income and / or property taxes.
We take it you are referring to the same ‘taxation’ that the country has been ‘avoiding’ for the last hundred years, right?
Could we by chance ask you to kindly consider at least the second to last and last sentence of your comment please?
He wouldn’t know sound advice if it was played on a boom box. Ha ha ha.
When is an audit going to be conducted in the Department of Tourism New York Office to investigate the waste? Isn’t it ironic that offices were closed in NA due to budgetary constraints, yet they have hired new staff?
I understand why FOI is deemed to be a waste of time and money. Can anybody imagine what would really happen if we didnt have access to FOI?
Who are the local principles and directors for:
Innotiva Ltd
At Water Ltd
Focus Corporate Service Ltd
What is a “CIG Liaision in Florida”? Is that like an Ambassador or Consular? What are the qualifications for this post? Was the role advertised? Was there an interview process? Were there any other candidates?
If other bloggers are correct and Janet Tomaski is the daughter of the Speaker of the House, they are membersof the luckiest family in these islands! And it all starts to make sense how things happen the way they do in LA.
How can I become the “CIG Liasion’ in my district and get paid for being a Caymanian?
Mickey Remember you cannot find out the directors as it is confidential information under our so called transparent laws. However some websites will reveal the information if you are lucky. In this case at least one website just does that. As I keep saying it is proposterous that one is not entitled to know the names of directors of companies. Time to change the law and employ some more consultants.
good to see some of these contracts staying local – prob would have cost twice as much to hire "overseas experts", who could provide no better value for money – probably less…
What! Jannet Tomaski paid 48,000 of our hard earned money to fund her extravagant lifestyle. I am in shock. What could she possibly be doing for the Government in Tampa that is worth this amount of money.
Not insinuating anything but what kind of CIG liasion is happening in Florida? Jannet Tomaski is the Honourable Speaker’s daugther. Does she own a business in PR business in Tampa? Don’t know and don’t really care but that is not the point. Anybody can have a business (like Focus) and seem to be providing legitimate business to the Government but the key question is, "is it necessary to employ these people?" More than likely not. Sounds like a whole bunch of fluff, smoke and crap to me.
I agree with the person who pointed out that Paul Byles is the seem person advising the Premier to trim the Civil Service but replace them with who Paul? Consultants like you who charge over $10K per month?
As I see it some of these "consultants" are merely for the purpose of gathering free advice from people and collating it and then presenting it as the product of their consultancy. Rubbish! . Everyone is an expert when it comes to how to fix the Government.
They want to trim the civil service, deprive hard-working people who have mortgages to pay and families to feed of jobs but think nothing of paying someone $35,000 for a speech? I am sure that there were many civil servants who were capable of writing that speech for the Honourable Premier and he may have had to pay them a litle bonus or overtime or something (if anything ) but I guarantee you it would not have been $35,000.
Over the years, the Government has proven time and time again (and I don’t mean just the UDP or PPM, all of them) that they have no confidence in their own people, it is as if they are convinced that if an expat didn’t think it, say it or write it then it is not good advice. Why do they all make the same mistake over and over?
Before smoeone accuses me of making this into a Caymanian/expat issue, I am just speaking the truth. Look at all the consultants over the years and tell me how many have given advice that could not be found right here from their own Caymanian people?
Why do we need to pay a former leader of the Democratic Labour Party in Barbados to help with the prepration of he budget speech?
You can figure that one out.
“CIG liaison in Florida”
$48,200.00
Give us a break!
That information alone settles everything for me!
This man truly has to leave the position of Premier, PRONTO!
I mean, for real, “CIG liaison in Florida”, why do we need that and then it it mean we need “liaisons” in Canada, New York, Chicago, The UK and many more or is it that they dont have family in those jurisdictions!
I feel that these are criminal acts and should be investigated, oh but then again, when any investigation reaches a certain level, all is thrown out so I cant hold out hope for that either.
Man we are really up the wrong creek!
Dear Mr. Premier, can I please be a friend of yours? It sure seems to help to be your friend. It sounds like fun, & very rewarding!
You people all put up with it…why don’t you step up to the line an DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT before you are all enslaved!
If Egypt and Tunisia can do it, so can we! Meet us in Heroes Square at 4pm on Friday! No, wait, that’s happy hour! Meet us in Heroes Square at 10am on Monday!
…..and then let’s bow our heads in prayer!
CNS: “Mac spends $1.1m on advice” If his consultants led him to engage in projects to boost the economy and create jobs, well sorry to upset the critics… but I believe that is money well spent!
13:19…..kindly list the projects that have come to fruition and the number of jobs created in the last 18 months. Thank-you.
And “IF” he was smart enough to take good advice or strong enough to act on good advice there would be a lot less “critics” and a lot less waste in Government spending. We are not upset. Most of us understand he is just doing the best he possibly can and so are you.
Tell me something Dufus…….what boost to the economy and what jobs ?
Perhaps the jobs you are referring to are the hiring of consultants !
Because ‘weez’ unemployed and broke Bo Bo !
Projects to boost the economy and create jobs. Yeah right. Now we can boast of an economy that has a large number of wealthy consultants who will never have to worry about a job as long as we have a UDP government. Sorry to upset you but it’s not just yours and McKeeva’s money that is being ‘well spent’.
And then you woke up and went to the Employment Bureau again to see if they had a job for you
wow..$1.5 m for advice on how to do flip-flops, u-turns and genrally make a fool out yourself!
It STILL remains a mystery to me, because Mac most certainly does not need advice on how to do any of THAT?
I remember when our elected officials used to make their own decisions and some pretty good decisions were made.
I usually agree with your comments however these are incredibly tenuous times for the islands. All conscientious politicians will avail themselves of this kind of support in order to make knowledgeable decisions on important matters. I agree with consulting experts as long as the decision to utilize them was in itself subject to an effective authorization procedure and proper analysis of vendors was done during the selection process.
16:59….you make a good point however it has nothing to do with reality in Cayman. A proper elected leader for the country and people only, could utilize outside consultants to make good decisions for the country. But with the present premier this is not happening. Wade through where the money has gone, florida liaison ;-), ( how about 40k towards social services instead of a bank account in Florida) and what has happened from the expenditures. Zippo, we are still where we were 2 years ago except the country is further in debt, books cannot balance and crime is increasing. This kind of debate will ramble on until there is finally a change in the countries leadership.
If some of the comments here alluding to nepotistic and conflicted reward are true it does not appear there is an effective authorization procedure or proper selection process. My disagreement was only with your original comment that broadly asserts elected officials would be better off making decisions without consulting experts.
There is a process. But apparently some persons in government choose NOT to follow that process, just as they choose to NOT abide the CTC process or choose to NOT abide by the FOI law.
Do you see a pattern here?
Then it seems to me the system and process is not “effective” if it can be circumvented with apparent ease.
We sincerely hope you are not suggesting that this might or could have been the case with our dear Mac?
IT WILL ALL PAY OFF! watch and see
It already has! Big time! Just not for the Cayman people. Anything else you need to know Mac can reach me @Iamnotapirate. Still waiting for a job in Civil service.
This is atrocious. When the lowest paid civil and public servants can barely feed their families the local consultants that criticize the public service gets rich. The principals of all the local firms should be disclosed.
Focus Corporate Service is Paul Byles….."The Economist";
AtWater is Pilar Bush….hmmmm………you sure thats all was paid to AtWater Mr. Premier ?
Jannett Tomaski is The Hon. Speaker’s daughter…hmmmm….interesting isn’t it ?
Why didn’t we listen ?…….Mr. Clifford and the PPM were preaching for years about how wrong these questionable contracts were and they warned us that it would happen again if we gave Mac another chance.
Boatswain’s Beach, Royal Watler Terminal, Affordable Housing and now Cohen & Company comes to mind !!!!!!!!
I pray that we will learn.
who says that they are questionable contracts? who says that we did not get value for money for them and that the country would be in a much worse state without them. we don’t have all of the information here. we don’t know what services were provided.
governments all over the world pay consultants, private sector outsource all the time. it makes sense – why would we want to be different here?
it takes a smart person to know what they know, and when to ask questions and take advice.
people – grow up….
Pilar Bush is extremely well qualified to advise on tourism. I beleive that Mr Byles has a PHD from the London School of Economics. I don’t know too much about Ms Tomaski. Rather than derising these Caymanians – we should be showcasing them as role models for Cayman’s youth that are more interested their "entitlement" than focusing on education and hard work.
Education and hard work does not give you a free pass to milk government. Paul Byles does not have a PHD, David before making false statements over the internet you should verify the truth of them.
Give David a break please, I mean he did say he ‘believed’. Not sure why he would ‘believe’ without ‘knowing’ though. Maybe he is one of Macs very highly paid consultants too? David how much would you charge us to say you ‘believe’ we are going to survive the Mac? Really we would most happily pay top dollar for that most comforting professional reassurance…
Check your facts before you post – your comment is founded in fiction.
Pilar is well qualified to peddle “Spin”. Check your facts and her record at DOT and CAL. Yes I said check the facts…ignore the spin…….just the facts please.
Anyway I guess the WB land deal is being leveraged !
the qualifications are not the point. don’t know the guy well so i am not going to say anything bad about his reputation. i was in london when he was studying so i know he has a masters degree from lse and i think another masters so he is qualified in that area. BUT thats besides the point. if we are spending money then we need to know that whoever is taking this advice will actually do something to fix the country. otherwise you can hire someone from timbukto with a million qualifications and it wont matter!
the fees from sidley ausitn..what was that for? i thought toney travers and george mccarthy was giving bad boy mac advice on the international stuff?
Excuse me?? Jannett Tomaski paid $48,000 as a -dear God in Heaven – consultant for CIG? You have to be kidding! Leave aside the obvious inappropriateness of her being Mac’s appointed Speaker’s daughter. Jan has nothing, zero, nada to contribute as a consultant, even if the subject is, well, “liaison”. You couldn’t make this sort of stuff up. What a terrible terrible disgrace.
Over to you, Jan. Please list for us all your outputs and outcomes for which you have been paid this money.
I wouldn’t hold my breath, Cybyll.
Any chance you could perhaps pray a little harder, my friend?
so as premier should he not make the best judgement he can? i dont get it…let’s look at the health minister…what qualifications does he have to be a health minister? with respect to health issues he can only be so knowledgeable. they must take advice of counsel.
Would you like to have the premier on national stage open mouth jus to let the foot in? Ok, he does this a bit, but still. The man should have advice.
And what is one million to do? temporary employee some workers for a beatuification project with they will obtain no real transferable skills?
better to be cautious and right then bold and wrong.
And I guess it is better to just keep letting him make the same kind of judgment calls he has been makeing in the hopes that some day one of them might just be in the best interest of the people of Cayman instead of the people of Bush. Right?
The people of Bush? Could that be the same as the bush people? I thought we were PAYING this guy TONS OF MONEY and PERKS TO NO END to make judgment calls?
You are foolishly assuming that their are NO persons in the various ministries for the Premier or any other minister to call on. And that assumption is simply wrong.
It is quite obvious that, for whatever reason, he chooses to have a bloated ministry and not fully utilise them, preferring, at added expense, to get outside help.
Ezzard Miller is and will always be the best qualified Health Minister, except he is way too intelligent to align himself with the wrong clan. There can be no better example of how the party system is RUINING our country. Come on Caymanians, we can CHANGE THAT. WHY do we CONTINUE to allow illiterate WEST BAYERS to run and destroy this country for WHATEVER they might be getting from it? Come next election PLEASE let us vote for INDIVIDUALS based on THEIR LEVEL OF EXPERTISE AND INTELLIGENCE and their TRUE LOVE FOR THEIR COUNTRY and NOT for political parties and their zombie members that do nothing more than MILK OUR COFFERS…WAKE UP, MY BELOVED PEOPLE.
RASTA PASTA!
What a waste of money! He clearly never took any of the advice WE paid for!
WHAT A MESS!!
Whilst this information is important, I wonder how much money FOI is actually costing. It maybe cheaper not to know.
Maybe the next FOI question should be, How much has FOI cost us since implementation and what it costs us on a yearly basis.
I really don’t see anything in this. It works out to be a bit over half million dollars a year and some of these things for example air service agreements and Open skies seem to be one off’s. Lawyers are expensive and it doesn’t take long to rack up those figures. Also almost 15% of it was spent on the Miller report. I am sure there are some questionable ones in here as there always will be.
I would be more interested in finding out whether or not we got value for the money spent.
You say FOI may be costing us too much but you really want to know if we are getting value for money.
So explain to me how you can know if you are getting value for money if you dont know the cost of something?
Freedom of Information is essential in all countries. Wake up.
Your comment explains a lot on how someone like McKeeva Bush gets elected, does what he does, dosen’t do what he should, and stays in power. Thanks for clearing that up
No wonder we so damm broke!
Cronyism is our corruption. ALL of our politicians for the past two decades have paid their buddies with consulting contracts and new building contracts or projects. Perfectly legal and perfectly shameful.
White collar Caymanians are still at the back of the line humbling themselves for any decent jobs while the "connected" fat cats keep their precious ex-pats…solve the Immigration favoritism at ALL levels and send ALL contracts to tender, period.
Stop the favoritism and level the playing field….Stop the payouts. Let’s get back to our moral compass where honest men can make a good livingand start a good business, not just the ones who are in the right group at the right time.
Hello!… did you meant the 1.1 million that made us so damn broke OR the 81.1 million deficit the PPM left us in 2008?????????????????? Tell me, is that all you can get Mac for – the 1.1 and his traveling expenses?????????????????? Hello!
At least we can see where the 81.1 million went, we are still trying to see where the 1.1 million has gone and what good has it done.
Here is the fight.
81.1 million on:-
– Schools that was stopped becuase curent Government (that is the truth, but when the Education Department and Teachers told them that the schools where needed they picked it back up again) thought it was not necessary. Because it is ok to have the Government Schools over populated.
– Building of roads that has atleast alleviated traffic to some degeree
– Buildling of a Government Building that present Government wanted to sell and then lease back.
vs.
1. 1 million on: –
– All time high of crime
– Luxury Travel
– Soon come Chineese business (may never see)
– Geek Park – that will have to bring in Geeks just to make it work.
Can you Imagine if more was spent on advice "god say our souls".
Hello!…did you mean did you meant or did you mean did you mean? Actually he was talking about the 181.1 million defishit that Mac is going to left us with in 2012.
Makes us wonder if Mac has been taking the King along with him on his travels…after all you ARE the king, right? and that puts you higher than the premier himself, right? Well, thank goodness SOMEBODY is higher than the premier…although we WOULD prefer a king with a little better command of the English language. We doubt it but perhaps the Premier can help you with this?
OMG are your serious Mr. Bush honestly you have wasted more money than all civil servants put together and this crap Hoestly needs to stop why do you require to have so many advise on your responsibilties.Have you ever sat and say can I make this decision on my own as the leader of the country instead of having Tom Dick and Harry telling me BS costing this country a arm & a leg and thier advise still doesnt help us one bit. But guess what they got what the want in the first place and that the money But them agian you are hurting so many familys and civil servants for damages that you are causing and thats not fair. Thinking about it Mr. Bush.
In running this country, are you saying advisors are unimportant? We are not talking about counseling sessions! We are talking about running a country!!! The dollars just show the amount of work that has to be done, and the Premier is a man that does think he can do it alone. That is being a humbled leader!
Ha ha ha, he he, aaah yi yieee, a humbled leader, heh heh heh…, RAAAATID!
“What’s this word here?”
“That’s accountability, sir.”
“What’s it mean?”
Paul Byles is the principal of Focus Corporate Service, at the same time that he advocates trimming the civil service and cutting benefits to protect the country’s prosperity (which I believe is necessary) his firm hits up government with a bill for over 300,000.00- Deborah Drummond was providing this same type of advice free of charge, where does the integrity lie?
Also, is this Jannet related to one of them? Perhaps she has a relation in the LA? Maybe speaker?
Don’t forget the consultants who get paid to take out the big words from the other consultants’ reports.
Amazing, 2 steps ahead and 3 steps behind. The island still is not going any better at all. Why did they use this money to make JOBS for unemployed people!