10 questions for the premier
1. In March you took a plan to Parliament that increased the present year’s expenditures to $550 million. What was your plan to magically reduce it next year to the $498 million you claim you directed in January?
2. When you sent the circular you claimed, can you tell the country what policy directives you gave to reduce cost – or did you just expect the cost would have reduced by itself to a number you pulled from a hat?
3. The budget you took to Parliament showed that this financial year was going to end with the bank account in overdraft. Were you hanging the entire fiscal viability of the country on the gamble that the UK would say yes to borrowing? If not, how were you going to finance the period between July and December when government typically spends more than it earns?
4. If your expenses were $550 million for this financial year, a year when you hired almost 5 dozen new police officers halfway through, when you gave the civil servants a raise half way through, how were you going to absorb the full year effect of just those two decisions while simultaneously reducing costs?
5. When the Civil Servants came back with the spending plan, was it to hire private chefs to cook for them, hire personal chauffeurs, build new walls around their houses or was it a reflection of the cost to implement the policies of your government? You can’t have your cake and eat it too sir, if you want to bring in reception year in public schools, it is going to cost money, if you want to give away solar panels, it is going to cost, if you want to give out more for nation building it is going to cost. Civil servants didn’t give you a plan to buy luxuries for themselves; they just gave you a reality check on the cost of implementing your government’s policy wish list.
6. Who in government makes the decision to build roads, build remand facilities, build schools, build Hurricane Hiltons, etc? Is it the lowly civil servants or is it your own ministers? Therefore, when you claimthey overshot the target for capital, who overshot it, civil servants or your colleagues?
7. When did you first know the cost of your policy wish list was more than you could afford?
8. What actions have you taken since that time to address the fiscal gap?
9. If, as you claim, you and your ministers have spent several weeks and long nights cutting the $130 million overshot but still haven’t been able to cut all of it, is that an admission that the $498 million was never a realistic number? Are you admitting that, as minister of finance you had no clue as to what the true cost of operating government was and so gave a totally unrealistic target with no policy directive on how to achieve it? If not, you should have been able to reach the $498 million target you set now that you and your ministers are personally cutting the budget, shouldn’t you?
10. How do you feel, Sir, how do you feel to have had this situation completely blow up in your face? How does it feel to go down in history as not only the first Minister of Finance but possible the worst Minister of Finance? How does it feel to know that if you had given your country the priority it deserves instead of your jaunts to foreign countries at various social events on our dime, you may have had a chance to avoid this embarrassing situation to our birth country? Finally, Sir, how can you even stand to show your face in public after this?
Category: Viewpoint
MAC'S REPLY (sort of)…
While listening to Big Mac's last spate of ranting on the radio (what used to be known as "making a speech" before the Makeewah era), I nodded off. OK, so, what else does one do when listening to mindless drivel framed in the reasoning and grammar of a four-year-old? Continual cringing had me tired and I needed an escape.
As I snoozed I had a dream about this Viewpoint. Wow! I was interviewing the Premier and I posed to him the questions contained here. In my dream Mac answered each question in his usual adroit (what used to be called "evasive" and "conniving" before the Makeewah era) manner. Here is a transcript of my dream:
1. In March you took a plan to Parliament that increased the present years expenditures to $550 million. What was your plan to magically reduce it next year to the $498 million you claim you directed in January?
Mac replied: "Everybody knows dat magic does not need any plan. This is plain an' simple. As I usually do when I see vision like dis, I simply make a fist and squint my eyes closed and I see dat doze tings come to pass. I are de Premier and it muss be as I say. Just like Moses parting the waters in de Bible."
2. When you sent the circular you claimed, can you tell the country what policy directives you gave to reduce cost or didyou just expect the cost would have reduced by itself to a number you pulled from a hat?
Mac replied: "I do not recall making any directive on dis. I usually save directives for more, uhh…explosive issues. You know…tings like releasing dynamite to unlicensed importers, tings like dat. You are just being silly asking if I pull budget costs out of my hat. Everybody who knows Makeeva Bush knows he don't wear no hats. De truth is dat I usually pull all doze kine of figures out of my wife's hat because she have plenny hats."
3. The budget you took to Parliament showed that this financial year was going to end with the bank account in overdraft. Were you hanging the entire fiscal viability of the country on the gamble that the UK would say yes to borrowing? If not, how were you going to finance the period between July and December when government typically spends more than it earns?
Mac replied: "You clearly have no idea of what you're talkin' about! Like that donkey face Alden, you are just aksing questions to drag me down and mess up my efforts to better this country! I had a job to do – to present those donkey-face limey's an' my people wit some figures dat would make dem happy. De UK did not ask if the figures would come from rational calculations and forecasts – someting as Financial Secretary I are totally unable to anyway – of if the figures came from my wife's hat. An' Caymanian don't care about de truth as long as dey can feel good 'bout tings. How was I supposes to know dat de UK would get so pickysome and demand a balanced budget? You ask how I are supposed to finance the budget during that period? Again, you plenty fool on dis issue. I don't have to finance it, the Cayman Islands gowernment do – and de gowerment can't because dey are broke."
4. If your expenses were $550 million for this financial year, a year when you hired almost 5 dozen new police officers halfway through, when you gave the civil servants a raise half way through, how were you going to absorb the full year effect of just those two decisions while simultaneously reducing costs?
Mac replied: "Anybody wit a good brain like mine knows what you ask is impossible. It can't be done. So why the stupid question? All you people do is try to trip me up. De answer is simple: We muss turn dis economy around! What I see happpening is dat we have to balance money comin' in wit money goin' out so we juss need to borrow more money to balance tings! You can figure dis out for yourself but you still ask silly questions. Alden asks tings like dis juss to aggrawate me, and you are no different! Dis is pure unadulterated bureaucratic harassment!"
5. When the Civil Servants came back with the spending plan, was it to hire private chefs to cook for them, hire personal chauffeurs, build new walls around their houses or was it a reflection of the cost to implement the policies of your government? You cant have your cake and eat it too sir, if you want to bring in reception year in public schools, it is going to cost money, if you want to give away solar panels, it is going to cost, if you want to give out more for nation building it is going to cost. Civil servants didnt give you a plan to buy luxuries for themselves; they just gave you a reality check on the cost of implementing your governments policy wish list.
Mac replied: "No! When the Civil Servants came back with the spending plan, it was NOT to hire private chefs to cook for them, or to hire personal chauffeurs, or to build new walls around their houses ! Indeed it was a reflection of the cost to implement the policies of your government: an' some of doze policies are: that the chef, the chauffeurs, and walls are for ME! What do you mean I can't have my cake and eat it too? (Big Mac Pats his belly). Whenever my chefbakes a cake you know dat I am going to eat de cake and my wife is lucky if she get a crumb! Dat's why I keep "clean hands", so I can to be ready to eat anytime my chef says food is ready."
6. Who in government makes the decision to build roads, build remand facilities, build schools, build Hurricane Hiltons, etc? Is it the lowly civil servants or is it your own ministers? Therefore, when you claim they overshot the target for capital, who overshot it, civil servants or your colleagues?
Mac replied: "I are the one dat make all doze decisions and my ministahs are responsible for de departments dat is making de payments. Dat's how gowernment rou' de Cayman Islands works! So dey are de ones who messed up if dey can't pay for tings I ordah. Collegues? Dere are juss one Premier in deez islands, so I do not have any colleagues.
7. When did you first know the cost of your policy wish list was more than you could afford?
Mac replied: "Here you go being silly again! Deez tings I come up with are not a 'wish list' like you and the PPM puppets call it, all of my projects are absolutely necessary for the very survival of dis country! If I had not let JuJu pave all dem Brac parking lots, some poor old woman could get a piece of gravel in her shoe and end up wit a lame foot. If de old ladies on Cayman Brac end up all lame-footed, den dey can't cook an' bring any dinners for church socials an' JuJu will get hungry an' end up with low blood sugah when she visits there. A hungry JuJu wid low blood sugah will not make her usual inspiring speeches about serving the Lord and the whole island will go to Hell. As a Christian with a pure heart an' clean hands I cannot allow this to happen, so I refuse to listen to all you witches and sons of satan who oppose doze vital paved parking lots on de Brac."
8. What actions have you taken since that time to address the fiscal gap?
Mac replied: "I are a man of action! An' I done lots about the fiscal gap! You an' I both know dis. Everybody who knows me knows I like to see tings done BIG. A little tiny fiscal gap needs someone to make it grow into someting and so I did my bess and so it is a nice big gap now. I grow the fiscal gap into huge proportions – one dat even the Auditah General and the UK have taken notice of and amazed ovah, an' I still don't get any thanks for it."
9. If, as you claim, you and your ministers have spent several weeks and long nights cutting the $130 million overshot but still havent been able to cut all of it, is that an admission that the $498 million was never a realistic number? Are you admitting that, as minister of finance you had no clue as to what the true cost of operating government was and so gave a totally unrealistic target with no policy directive on how to achieve it? If not, you should have been able to reach the $498 million target you set now that you and your ministers are personally cutting the budget, shouldnt you?
Mac replied: "See? You got it all wrong again. I never said that $498 million was "realistic". You and the press muss have said dat. I needed to give all you donkey-face people here an' in de UK a numbah, so I ask my wife to go get her hat wit de numbahs in it… You have no clue how government works. Don't you watch YouTube? Your question is pure unadulterated bureaucratic harassment! I are de Premier! An' I are de one who sets policy on what de Minister of Finance must do and I set out his qualifications. And I never said dat he had to know the true cost of operating de government or silly stuff like dat! To do dat requires education an' expertise. I never would have made dat a part of the job description for de Minister of Finance. De only qualification was dat he muss not mind travelling a lot. An' I never said de Ministerof Finance needed to issue any policy directives on balancing the budget – dat is another devilish idea from doze donkey-face pencil pushers in the UK government wit nothing better to do than nit pick about my borrowing and dey try to bully me and dey hire hit men to torpedo my ideas on how to spend money to run dis country.
10. How do you feel, Sir, how do you feel to have had this situation completely blow up in your face? How does it feel to go down in history as not only the first Minister of Finance but possible the worst Minister of Finance? How does it feel to know that if you had given your country the priority it deserves instead of your jaunts to foreign countries at various social events on our dime, you may have had a chance to avoid this embarrassing situation to our birth country? Finally, Sir, how can you even stand to show your face in public after this?
Mac replied: "I do not travel on anyone's "dime"! To get me an' all my people to and from all doze places in de world dat me an' my wife always dream 'bout visiting costs a lot more dan dimes; as Minister of Finance I estimate dat to fly all deez people firss class an' eat gourmet meals and take limos everywhere, it muss cost several hundred dollahs each year. But I feel dat if I did not live like an emperor then I would look and feel like the common Caymanian. An' anybody who knows Makeeva Bush knows dat I would hate to suffer an' live like the common Caymanian do deez days. (Mac rolls his eyes and shivers.) Listen to one ting: if I had given travelling de priority it deserves I could completely avoid being here at all – except for maybe some LA meetings. An' I could avoid all dis foolery. So your question shows how much you know about being Premier. How can I stand to show my face in public after this? Simple: I are de Premier! An election year soon come. Tings 'round dis place is so confused and is going so bad if I did not show my face in public people would think I are dead or something. Besides…(Bush stands up, does a quick spin in place, then he executes a pop-singer-style crotch grab and jiggles his jewels) …deese are made of brass! (Mac smiles broadly as his googlies clang loudly.) Listen! Solid brass!"
The loud tinkling of brass woke me up. Makeewah was still raving on the radio. I had to pinch myself to see if I was still dreaming or was it real.
Now, all you people who are thinking about voting for Bush and any of his UDP minions come next election, lightly tap your skull. Hear that? No brass there…only the dull thud of total emptiness.
I was invited into a school a couple of days ago to give a talk to some of the children. I arrived early and one of the students gave me a tour of the school. While we were walking round I asked her what her father did for a living.
“He’s a striptease dancer in a Gay Bar in George Town,” she told me.
I was bemused but said nothing. When we arrived at the room where I was to give my talk, I said to her, ”Is your Dad really a dancer? I didn’t think there were any Gay Bars in Cayman.
She was clearly very discomfited but then she mumbled, “Actually, he’s an MLA for the UDP but I was too embarrassed to tell you that.”
A good FOI question would be. How does Government select and prioritise its spending, between essential and non-essential services?
The answer should be interesting. No one can tell me that there is any system in use, that can objectively select worthwhile projects and programmes or even recurrent expenditure when there are so many competing interests for scarce resources.
Because presently it is very arbritary, and there is not any rationale that anyone can place their finger on.
In the private sector the concept of investment appraisal is well understood, given the motive is profit. So in a not for profit scenario what methods of selecting projects can one apply? The
I am sure Ezzard Miller has all the answers hahaha.
Here is a good project for a young Caymanian Phd student.
I think your job is quite a bit easier.
You only have to think profit but Government has to think essentail services. Whether it makes a profit or not certain thigns the country has to have. Government has to provide thos things think prison. It makes little to no money and would make a poor private sector project but Government has to provide it some way.
Moreover Government has to carry out their jobs while listening to every professional in the world. Notice how everyone can do a better job?
PS this does not mean I dont think they are not making mistakes. They are. I believe that in an attempt to satisfy people in this country we are selling our souls for the here and now and not thinking about the future.
One more question Mr bush. What is the name of the next Auditor Genaral?
Big Mac has asked Steve to review the constitution to see if there is anything that specifically prevents someone from holding the post of Minister of Finance and AuditorGeneral at the same time.
A hope y trip up n pop y mout.
The Premier is limited in his capacity to two questions. However, the answer to the second question is dependent on how gullible you are in accepting any part of the first answer as truthful.
These are the types of questions that Austin and Gilbert used to ask the Premier when he used to attend their talk show for conversation and questions.
Care to guess why he now refuses to "sit in the hot seat", but, instead, sends his "spin master"?
If you are expecting smart educated answers you are asking the wrong guy. Besides, most of the questions can be answered with "I know how to buy things, I don't know anything about how to pay for them and never did. But they gave me the job anyway so I do what I do best and let the UK figure out how to pay for it all when I'm done.
Here are some budget cut solutions
1. cut all foreign executive workers in Government,( two months notice to train their subalterns), lower levels within one month.
2. take 1,000 civil servants(average saries 5,ooo.oo p/month) and retrain them for jobs
in the hotel industry.
3. reduce mileage of all remaining civil servants to 200 miles per week, (with proper monitoring on the vehicles) any excesses to be paid by the civil servant if not completely justifiable.
4. Permit over time only in the HIgh Risk departments such as Fire Service, POlice, Emergency Services etc.
5. review purchases of services and goods within the Service (stationary,equipmet,maintenance, guard services etc) and centralize the process under one umbrella, you will find that duplications are erased, better pricing is obtained and savings achieved.
Estimation of Savings over 5 years tens of millions. Im not the Finance MInister but I dare any of you laymen that are blogging day and night to come up with figures that refute the above. .
1. May be doable in some instances, but what are the costs associated with terminating a large number of contracts early (severence packages etc). What is the impact to Cayman's reputation if a large number of foreginers are effectively dismissed and sent off the island? Will it make it easier or harder to find foreign specialists to come to Cayman towork for the Government? What is the impact to service and perforemance of the civil service if a large group of senior staff leave in that two month timeframe?
2. Who will pay for the training? What is the net impact of the loss of WP revenue to Govt? Can the civil service drop 1000 staff without appreciable negative impact to services/revenue collection?
3. No issue. Of course there will be added costs in the monitoring (it doesn't "magically" happen) but savings should be achievable.
4. Again no issue, but it probably won't save as much as you think. The uniformed services (Fire, Police, Immigration, Prison Service, Emmergency Communications) make up a fairly large percentage of the civil service, and overtime is a part of the job (e.g planes sometimes land late so immigration staff have to stick around at the airport longer to get the passengers landed – alternatively would having passengers sleep in the airport until 8am the next day be acceptable?)
5. Good idea, but again not something that will happen overnight. Many departments will have long term supply contracts, or are the only purchasersof certain goods (e.g road tar) so centralisation may add beauracracy . Savings exist, but again there is a cost to achieve centralisation and its not a magic "free and easy" solution.
Everyone seems to think that they can just cut cut cut.
The elected members have cut the civil service jobs and pay. What they gain they then put on their own pet projects.
They have got to stop yanking the civil servants around as they please. Despite the reputation the civil service has numerous hard working people. But even beyond that they are humans and have families that rely on them. yet somehow in this country being a civil servant usually means that you take lowe rpaying jobs for stability (Meaning hard to fire). People are blinded by the fact that you do have higher paid officers in higher ranking positions moreover people also include elected members as civil servants. Do we really think we can pay someone to run the department of Immigration for $2,000 per month or something. These jobs are careers.
From the day "they" decided to pay themselves all that money just for being popular we have been on a bad path for Cayman. Yet in the end they keep their salaries and cut the poor civil servants. And through them the civil servants are black eyed. And PS the civil servants are the ones that at least have some ownership to carrying out some level of work to deserve their position.
In answer to your comments regarding the costs of terminating ex-pats from the civil service; isn't there an Immigration law that stipulates that the ex-pat can only be hired for a certain time with the condition that they train a Caymanian to do the job? Or did the foreigners offer a payoff to get here? Hmmm, could be.
Truley pathetic anti expat drivel. The worst thing that could happen to Cayman is all the expats go back home and let you figure out how to live without help.
You no longer need to navigate to find these islands. There is so much bullshinet in the air that you simply need to follow your nose. We have now been discovered as a new planet that is inhabited by the UDP and PPM. We can look forward to a name change soon. Probably "{PLANET STUPIDER)
"I am no financial expert." — McKeeva Bush
Why is this guy the finance minister?
When I heard that he had chosen the Finance Ministers post for himself, I asked the question as to what qualifications he had for the job. I am still waiting on an answer. I guess we have to blame the Governor for that Boo Boo.
Experience at First Cayman Bank??
Matter cannot be created nor destroyed but heavy plant equipment can disappear in a puff of smoke.
Obviously he is the best they have.
At making sure the money gets destributed to as many voters and freinds as possible.
Thats what the people(who vote)on Cayman want out of it all.
Don't be silly. We have a Cabinet Minister who is a CPA yet not Minister of Finance. Bush wanted control of everything that had to do with money. I wonder why.
No, that's not what many of us want at all.
Prove it by holding those responsible accountable. Or is that to much work for a Caymanian?
"Too much work for a Caymanian". You may think comments like these are cute but they say much more about you than they do about me. This sort of prejudiced nonsense is what perpetuates the Caymanian/expat divide.
So yes. And the divide between Caymanian and expat is because of the prejudice shown to non Cayman to da bone "others". Like me.
anon 1906 can you explain this prejudice?
I mean I know we got fools to spare as do all countries but is it because the countries laws are written to favour caymanians?
Thats how most countries operate.
It is the natural division that occurs between well educated, skilled, anyones with a high standard of livingand a life of giving back to the community and the uneducated and unmotivated (not neccesarily their fault) anyones in any country that have no chance to compete. I understand. I have seen both sides. Respect given is a balance to respect earned. As is the opposite.This has very little to do with laws but everything to do with attitude. Most people will get along with most people, some won't. Thats how people operate. Everywhere.
All prejudice should be condemned but I see you failed to condemn the previous poster's prejudice and sought to deflect criticism of it instead.
No prejudice is good but should be identified first to fight it. It was not a deflection. Nor would I expect anything to come of it.
And you are still deflecting rather than identifying the poster's prejudice.
What does the Minister of Finance have in common with the CPA who is a cabinet minister? Both were asleep at the wheel!
BOOM!
it should be 'questions for dwayne seymour the next time he has mckeewa on'……
talk today always leaves you with more questions than answers……
Dwayne Ebanks. Dwayne Seymour is the BT MLA.
Not for long!
questions for rooster on gov friday……… but as usual the hosts will let the elio/mark dance around and avoid the questions…
while you're at it ask him how he plans to pay those lawyers the hundreds of thousands that have racked up since legal aid funding ran out months ago. would be interesting to hear his answer.
What about the increased health insurance? As I understand it, that alone was going to had over 10 million dollars to next year's budget. How was he going to mitigate that and get cost back down to his target. Oh, I forgot, you weren't home to hear about that!!!, just goes to show how clueless this guy is regarding anything that is happening to the Government on a financial level.
You should also ask him why, when he is supposedly cutting costs, he has now establised a New Ministry under himself called Office of the Premier where he has appointed a chief of staff and plans to have an enitre crew of political assistants which is going to cost the country millions per year to run. Action speaks louder than words Mr. Bush, you are reading the words of the speech writer and saying one thing about fiscal responsibility, but your actions to the contrary are drowning out every word.
This government is hopeless, the five ministers are the worst the Cayman Islands have ever had. They are like kids in a candy store!
Mr. Bush will blame the PPM and the civil servants and the dead beats and hangers on will agree with him.
Brilliant. I stand with the author in asking for answers to these questions.
Now that's tellling him!
The eleventh question. Mr bush why do you not just resign and help the Cayman Islands recover from your failing regime. You would do all of us a favour.
Thank you for saying what a lot of people would like to say but can't. Civil Servants get blamed for the expenditures all the time when there are all of these extras that the Ministers put down and then we need to cut from our essential services to pay for paving lots, chaffuers, body guards, cook, travelling expenditures, Solar panels, vote buying, etc.
This paving lot fiasco is more expensive than people realise when NRA is flying home every weekend and eating three meals a day in a restaurant. That is a very expensive fiasco. Then there are all the other ones that no one writes about.
I would like to correct you about one thing: Civil Servants didn't get a raise: they got their COLA back. For the people at the bottom of the ladder that only made a few dollars, it was a big help to have an additional $50.00 to help with their gas bills for example as well as an ease off of Social Services. Cutting the Civil Servants pay or pay for anyone for that matter is the worse thing to do in a recession as then people don't spend and companies have to close down.
We need the MLAs to stop wasting our money on their chosen few including themselves and start making the changes to bring the economy around. If I can live on less than $2000 a month then McKeeva and the rest of the MLAs can too. Most of them have businesses as well to earn money from.
Hear hear !!! At least the Civil servants agreed to a COLA, but the MLAs, including Opposition and Independent, didn't take the cut thatwas being touted by the politicians at first, and some are earning hefty salaries / perks and drawing pension at the same time. It is funny to see how tight some of them lived before they entered politics because it was their personal money being spent, and lo and behold what happens after they get into government service – like kids in a candy store they become – when they have access to the country's money, and put down their pet projects / vote buying and personal benefits / travel / perks etc. as priorities while ignoring real priorities for the country's best interests. No wonder civil servants have been also abusing the system too, taking gas when they shouldn't, spending time on cell phones, internet, shoe shopping on 2-hour lunch breaks, etc. I am not saying their actions are justified or right, but there is a saying "children live what they learn" and so do civil servants. The blame lies squarely at the feet of the politicians, past and present.
We need to march to the Government building and demand he resigns immediately!! I am ready- are you?
Yes. Where and when do we meet.
What I would really like to see is an independent AUDIT of the Social Sereice Department
by an outside company (I know tha we would hav eto pay for that also), but one completed and
findings properly implemented, I am positive there will be immediate savings. Maybe then we
take a look at not renewing some government contract workers and putting some of the
1,700 umemployed Caymanians back to work so that more money is circulated on the island which is good for the economy. When unemployment is at a record high less money is circulated on the island. NOT PREJUDICED in any way, but most expats send their money HOME which contributes to a weaker economy and only compounds our problem. It is TIME for CAYMANIANS to again start making money and not depend on Social Service as Goverment is forcing us to by not protecting us.
GOD BLESS THE BEAUTIFUL CAYMAN ISLANDS.