Failure to plan behind crisis
(CNS): The failure to make long term plans, compounded by the failure to follow short term plans, is the reason why the UDP government has found itself in a major budgetary crisis in its last year of this administration, panellists at a public debate all agreed Thursday. A business professor, the chair of Cayman Finance, the former deputy governor, the opposition leader and an independent MLA all said the solution to the country’s public finances lies in developing a strategic long term plan to cut the size of government and to grow the economy in new directions, but above all to stick to the plan once it is developed.
Speaking at the Generation Now debate, it was noted by several panel members that although the UDP government had submitted a three-year plan to get out of the financial problems facing the public coffers, the plan was simply ignored, which is why the UK is now taking a much closer interest in the details of the Cayman government’s budget and insisting that the next one must be both credible and sustainable.
Since government had declined to send a representative, there was almost no disagreement in the panel discussion, which focused heavily on the need to begin cutting the size of the public sector and to absorb those who lose their jobs into the private sector, while generating new pillars for Cayman’s economy and training local workers for the jobs that this would create. The lack of transparency in government, the failure to engage the public until the last minute and the absence of proper economic analysis in Cayman’s budgetary process were also noted.
“We need sound long term planning based on sound economic analysis,” Ezzard Miller, the independent member for North Side, said as he called again for wider public consultation by government to create a five-year economic plan for government’s finances.
Opposition Leader Alden McLaughlin said the current crisis was generated because government ignored its own three-year plan.
“Despite knowing full well the challenges we faced and despite having made a three-year plan … nothing of consequence has been done to give effect to that plan,” he said. If government had followed the plan, McLaughlin said, there should have been a $60 million surplus instead of the massive deficit that the government was faced with earlier in the year, and the attempt to hack away at this had resulted in the current situation.
While McLaughlin and Cayman Finance chair Richard Coles bothadvocated for a long-term plan to reduce the size of the civil service rather than new revenue raising measures as the way forward, all of the panellists, including former deputy governor Donnie Ebanks, agreed that the civil service could, over the next three years, be reduced to the target in the Miller-Shaw report of around 3,300.
This could happen, all the men agreed, through a combination of attrition, consolidation, a focus on wasteful areas and retraining. They said that swooping cuts across the board were not the answer, but the necessary cuts should be based on a focused examinationof how services could be delivered more efficiently and the removal of poor value for money and waste.
Although there were several reasons put forward for the increase in the public sector, the panellists all agreed that its reduction would need political will and that it was not the governor’s responsibility to cut the head count. “Ministers drive policy,” said Coles, who has worked in both the private and public sectors.
McLaughlin, who was a minister for five years, agreed and said it was government policy that drives the numbers of people involved. He pointed to policies such as the recent decision by government to introduce free Reception classes in primary school, which will require extra staff.
“The government is acting as though there isn’t a crisis and still wants to implement its new policies. Ministers are not willing to give them up so the number of civil servants continues to go up. With the introduction of new policies it can’t diminish,” he said.
Robert Weishan, Chair and Professor of Business Studies at UCCI, who offered new insight during the debate (check back for separate CNS article), pointed out that all governments introduce new policies but old ones never seem to die.
The real revelations, however, came from Donnie Ebanks, the former deputy governor, about how responsible the ministers really are for the size of the public sector. Referring to the circular that the premier has spoken about regarding this year’s budget crisis, in which he had claimed that the civil service came back with a total spending requirement of over $630 million, Ebanks said that the sums in each ministry were arrived at in consultation with and signed off by each of the Cabinet ministers.
“There is a lack of political will to effect cuts,” Ebanks said. “Ministers have the ultimate tool, which is the appropriations,” the former head of the civil service said, as he pointed out that civil servants can only spend what is appropriated to their department and nothing more.
Miller agreed, noting that the ministers would have been the driving force behind the huge spending plan that emerged at the beginning of this year. “The ministers have the power to alter policies and lead the cuts,” he said.
Category: Politics
I think failure to see a fool as anything but a fool is more Caymans problem. Please stop acting surprised every single time he does anything stupid. It makes you all look like fools.
I think failure to see a fool as anything but a fool is more Caymans problem. Please stop acting surprised every single time he does anything stupid. It makes you all look like fools.
An option, which I have not seen mentioned, is to simply roll back civil service wage levels. Everybody takes a 5% cut. This has happened in certain areas of the USA, as municipalities have faced massive shortfalls.
Another option, cut the operating hours of places such as libraries, to reduce the paid staff time hours and other operating costs.
If people are saddened or opposed to reducing the payrolls via layoffs, because they do not want to see people be unemployed, perhaps the above would be more palatable.
Cut operating hours of Libraries? Hell no! Increase hours and give them better budgets so they can offer literacy courses, reading groups, book clubs, resume writing, computer courses, internet research, and every other course needed to bring Caymanians up to literate and employable standards. Libraries are the last bastion of democracy, providing learning opportunities for people who can't pay the fees for private tutoring and coursework. The Cayman library system has some top-notch personnel who would come up with lots of progressive programmes given the budget and opportunity. Oh, now I'm really mad…!
Here's a copy of the memo that Mr Evans keeps refering to but not disclosing.
MEMO – AudGen re Draft Rport – Opers Temp & Cealt_ Jul 09.pdf
My issue with the former Auditor General as far as Mr Bridger's costs were concerned was simply that if his report was not going to suggest either:
focusing on the cost of those services seemed inappropriate to me.
By comparison, if his office was considering a project for which the government had acquired a piece of land from someone, stating the cost is appropriate but dwelling on how much the individual was paid for the piece of land is only appropriate if it is supported by evidence that the price paid was unreasonable.
Mr Bridger didn't hire himself, and for what it's worth, had been working here for about 6 months before I was introduced to him by the former Governor.
I think poster 20:21 from yesterday is probably right but he and others can form their own opinion.
I stand by my comments.
Donnie
CNS: A number of documents regarding this OAG Special Report have now been posted in the CNS Library under Documents. They were sent to us over the weekend by John Evans.
Always good to hear from my former working collegue Mr. Ebanks. This reply, and my comments below, show that even senior officials in the CIG, often vehemently disagreed!
My first point would be that this type of letter was a normal part of the audit process although most weren't so colorful. As people familiar with the Audt Office will know, it is the practice to send draft reports to the people involved for their comments. The goal is to improve the report and sections are sometimes changed if the Office thinks that an improvement is warranted. This is the context that this letter was written.
Secondly, I would encourage people to go back and reread the report. It is still on the AG website and still make fascinating reading!
The main purpose of the report was to provide an accounting of the costs of Tempura. I would remind people that when we issued the report, there was speculation about the costs but the government was providing no accounting (sounds familar doesn't it folks?).Our main goal was to provide that accounting and I think we did that. In the report, we state this as the main objective and we kept true to that.
There are many other aspects of the report including the inablity of government officials (Mr. Ebanks included) to control costs. Again, I encourage people toread the whole report. But I would like to directly deal with Mr. Ebanks comments about Martin Bridger salary etc.
As part of the accounting, we detailled the payments made to Mr. Bridger. How could we not? He was the lead investigator and paid the most. And Mr. Ebanks is correct in that we did not provide a comparison. In fact, if you read the report, you will note that at no time did the AG Office make any judgement about whether there was value for money obtained. This was deliberate on our part and I will explain why.
We did look for comparable contracts but couldn't find anything that we felt was directly comparable. This is not surprising given the unique aspects of Tempura. However, we did comment that hiring BGP was not unique and the government rules were not applied appropriately in that situation.
Auditors are often faced with this problem of not being able to find objective criteria to make a judgement about value for money. When we do, we go back to what we call the "everyman test". We ask ourselves, "What would the average person think of this?" To do this, we publish the costs and let the public make their own judgement. This is exactly what we did in this case.
Our key point re Mr. Bridgers fees was made in 9.08 and 9.09 of the Report but here are the key points.
Between May 2008 and Jan 2009, Mr. Bridger was paid $246,753 CI or about $27,400 CI per month.
Between Sept. 2007 and Jan 2009, Mr. Bridger was paid $428,634 CI.
Paragraph 9.09 stated that " While we have not evaluated whether or not value for money was obtained by paying the Senior Investigative Officer this amount of fees, we believe that it is important information to be made public and for discussion by the Legislative Assembly and the public".
Again, let me remind people that senior officials, including Mr. Ebanks were not providing this information. People didn't know what Mr. Bridger was paid or any of the other costs associated with Tempura. They knew this because the AG Office told them; not the politicians that were elected by the public nor the civil service who were supposed to be working for the public! It shouldn't be the AG Office to do things like this but we did them because no one else would!
Now, we didn't make a comment at the time because we couldn't make an objective comparison. That was the right thing to do then but we certainly had an opinion. Since I am no longer the AG, I can now share my opinion.
The SIO was paid over $428,000 in 17 months or over 25,000 per month. That, in my opinion, was outrageous. It was much more than the Governor made (or any other civil servant) and was probably twice what the Commissioner of Police was making at that time if my memory serves me well. It was certainly more than double the $11,000 made at that time by yours truly.
So there it is folks. What we said in 2009 and my own personal opinion. But of course, the most important judgement is yours. DO YOU think that you got $11 million plus value from Tempura and Cealt. Were the results of Mr. Bridger work worth twice what was paid to the Governor, the COP or any senior civil servant.
Again, I would like to say that I respect the former Deputy Governor and his opinions but I don't agree with him on this! I wish him well on all his future endevours whatever they happen to be.
Dan thank you for this very comprehensive and interesting response. We certainly did not get value for money but nor have we had value for money on many major projects over the past few years. These are just too many to list. Let us hope that following the payroll tax fiasco that Caymanians and expats alike will be more active in demanding accountability from our Government until they are replaced next May.
Why not read Mr Duguay's original report that was compiled in March 2009 and take a long, hard look at the changes that were forced through. Like this memo it has been released under FOI so should now be a public document – if not I'll arrange to copy it to CNS.
The changes are not only amazing but some are completely misleading and bear very little relationship to actual events.
Also consider this. Anne Lawrence replaced Martin Bridger in May 2009. He was being paid £787 a day but she was retained on her Met salary plus expenses, that's an annual amount rather less than Bridger was being paid each month. Does that make sense?
The Met have now admitted that the process that led to the employment of Martin Bridger (or was it MMB Associate Consultants, Mr Ebanks?) and BGP in May 2008 was actually begun in February 2008, while Tempura was still covert. That process was initiated by John Yates with the cooperation of the Metropolitan Police Authority so when CIG eventually became involved it was a done deal but that's not what was revealed to the AG.
There's also a mystery about continuing payments (possibly up to CI$1million) to the Met during a perioid when they, according to their own records, had no serving officers in the Cayman Islands. Where did that money go?
And there's plenty more to come.
CNS: John sent us a number of documents over the weekend regarding this OAG Special Report. They have now been posted in the CNS Library under Documents.
Conclusion: Sever ties with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, opps, sorry guys… that means Independence. Unless either the FCO handles our finances completely, which means, say bye-bye to the Premier's Ministry of Finance role; or, we put-up and shut-up, and implement the necessary checks and balances, needed against corruption. Rehashing the past will get us no where. I like Chris Johnson's attitude…
Sell the debt to Dart and start fresh, before its too late.
Holy crap! A plan? That was what was needed? I knew it!
This is probable one of the most stupid ideas but here we go;
Now we all know Mac is pushing for the Chinese to build the port and I can’t recall the total figure to complete the job, I believe it is around 750mill, and they would collect the port fees for the next 50yrs. Well if that is right why don’t we lease the port to them after they have paid off the port, say for another 100 years for 1.5 billion, we could pay off our deficit of 900million and leave us with cash in the bank. The Chinese currently have approx. 40 trillion dollars to lend, so why don’t we do this.
No government run by Mad Mac can follow any plan. He has appropriated too many responsibilities to himself and is not capable of keeping a governing philosophy at the front of his mind in the decisions he makes. He is much too concerned with positioning himself politically and seems to have the same problem Rod Blagojevich did in thinking that any decision favourable to a developer is "a fucking valuable thing, you don't just give it away". Well, Mac, we would gladly you give you away for free. You sad, sad man. Mother Nature herself will be hard pressed to repair the damage you did to some of her most prosperous people. You deserve less than nothing.
Perhaps Mr John Evans (Fri 8/10/12/ 16:17) could refresh our memories as to exactly who he is .I know he played some role in that whole mess that resulted in long drawn out investigations.What I don't remember is whether he was one of the good guys or one of the bad guys.
The headline is completely wrong.
It should read, "Failure to execute plan behind crisis".
There have been lots and lots of good plans available. When is lacking is the guts to execute.
Clearly John Evans is still very bent out of shape by how he was treated during Operation Tempura.
What I find amazing though is how he refers to this memo by Donnie Ebanks being a "public document" but doesn't share It. I have never seen it. Maybe, as media people often do, he is being very selective in what he refers to from the memo and realises that if he shared it, the picture that he tries to paint isn't what other might see. Am I correct Mr Evans?
It's posted now so read it and see what you think.
I also have a series of emails to and fron Mr Ebanks during which Martin Bridger uses the company name MMB Associate Consultants but that company was never registered in the Cayman Islands nor was it was registered in the UK.
Also consider this. Anne Lawrence replaced Martin Bridger. He was being paid £787 a day but she was retained on her Met salary plus expenses, that's an annual amount rather less than Bridger was was being paid each month.
And there's plenty more to come.
We have two possibilities as I see it:
One is the "failure" to plan and the other is the "inability" of our leaders to plan. It is clear that our Eternally Honorable Premier (hereby referred to as EHP) has taken the role of Finance Minister with no education or training in the area. We have a cawse of the Powerful inept leading the sheep like followers. Sadly this leads to poor or no planning for the future of our Islands. EHP is willing to put the burden on all facets of businesses in the country but not willing to give up EHP's controversial vote buying slush fund discuised as "nation building fund". Can anyone tell me who he truly thinks buys into that other then his heard of sheep saying yes when asked?
EHP I ask you to lead by example. Start now and make the sacrifices, yourself, that you are asking others to take or, even better, consider stepping down due to the three investigations. That way maybe you could remain EHP not just in your mind but in others also.
So, they decided that failure to properly plan, budget and control expendiure was the root of the current mess? Next up I understand they are looking at the religious denomination of the Pope, and whether bears choose to defecate in areas given over to forestry.
This is an exert that I copied from the Guardian, it would do our leaders and people well to keep this in mind and to accept the message before it's too late.
That is a message that the European Central Bank's board members could usefully take to heart, given their announcement on 2 August that they were ready to respond to events as they unfolded but were taking no action for now. Reading Friedman and Schwartz will remind them that it is better to head off a crisis than it is to rely on one's ability to end it.
A second recommendation is another account of the crisis of the 1930s, Charles Kindleberger's The World in Depression 1929-1939. (If vacationing officials detect a pattern in their summer reading, all the better.) Kindleberger's point is that avoiding a crisis – and when failing to avoid one, successfully exiting from it – requires leadership.
The old project management saying goes like this….
"When you fail to plan then you plan to fail."
The Cayman Government is a great example of this.
Remember how the Greeks lied about their budget to their own people and the EU?
Remember how bloated their civil service was, how many people had full time civil service jobs, a full pension and other perks and only worked 2/3 hours a day? They could not work any more, their other jobs (yes, 2 other jobs) got in the way!!!! I personally know several Greeks (friends) who did this. And how corrupt was that government?? And where are they now??
And the same chickens coming home to roost in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland.
And what has Mac learned from this? Nothing." Lets carry on until we implode and become a third world nation".
This forum got it right, plan theact (responsibly, that means cutting waste) and then act the plan. Does Mac seriously think he is cleverer than any of the above countries?? That would be delusional to say the least. If he swallows some bitter medicine now he could actually save Cayman..he really does not have to worry about re-election chances…he has not got any, so Mac, just do the best for your countrymen for once in your life!!!!
You are so right on point about the Greeks, look at thelong history, industries and tourism of Greece. If the truth be known most of the old money wealthy people in the shipping business are Greeks and if that country failed because of poor financial planning. Cayman should only imagine what can and will happen here in a very short time if the trend continues. Our leaders are drinking some kind of illision juice because they refuse to face the reality that is staring them in the face and so help us all, especially the young people.
The poster that you replied to mentioned the 'Greeks' and at another point mentioned 'chickens', and then you mentioned 'illision juice' – so now I am hungry for greek salad with chicken – but please tell me, does the illision juice go well with the greek salad and chicken?
And please dont be mad at me for asking…
It seems that Mr. Ebanks understands the problem. Perhaps he will undertake the teaching of a class for the bone-headed Cabinet Ministers who cannot.
You are presumably being sarcastic?
Is this the same Mr Ebanks who oversaw Operation Tempura/Cealt and tried to prevent Dan Duguay from making the financial arrangements public?
If it is on 15 July 2009 he wrote (the memo is a public document released to me under FOI), "I fail to see how it (the audit) will make any positive contribution to overall better understanding by the public of why these funds have been spent and whether they are better off as a result." At the beginning of the memo he had expressed anger at Duguay's decision to conduct the audit and an inability to understand what the pupose of it was. He then defended Martin Bridger's role at some length and claimed Duguay was singling him out for attention. If anyone has forgotten Bridger was paid £787 a day on a contract supervised (again I have emails released under FOI to back this up) by Mr Ebanks.
Nice exercise in fiscal control there, it was a bit like handing out blank cheques to your friends at the time and the bills are still coming in.
John, I suspect many people are sorry for everything you have had to go through, but must you make everything about you/Tempura?
Just exercising my right of free expression under ECHR Article 10 – you don't like that? TOUGH!!!!
Tempura/Cealt has cost the Cayman Islands something over CI$30million so far, it lost RCIPS something like 50-60 experienced and dedicated officers (that's roughly 1/6 of their operational strength) who decided the BS was more than the job was worth and it brought the islands into disrepute abroad.
You don't think that's important? If you don't then you hardly have to look very far to find where all the current problems originate do you?
And next time post under your own name so we might have some idea who to blame.
"so we might have some idea who to blame"
thats exactly what is the problem for you….you are looking for someone to blame for your personal gripe and beef …when no one is interested as we are trying to discuss wider national issues in this convo
thanks!
If a 10% reduction of staff is not politically achievable, How about a commitment to reduce the CS by 1% a year for the next 10 years.
Provide 12 months notice to former employees who are on pension who have returned to their same jobs as contractors.
Do not replace any supervisory or management position as people resign, or retire.
Place a strict hiring freeze on all but entry level front line staff.
Place a strict freeze on new appointments and promotions.
Real world business face real world issues like this all the time. Just get it done.
Sorry 12.27, this is quite impossible, as it would involve planning beyond next Tuesday. Remember that we went from 'expat tax' to, 'expat tax on earnings over $20,000' to, 'expat tax, on earnings over $38,000' to, 'no expat tax' to, 'we made a mistake and the expat tax is on the table again' to, 'no expat tax,' all in one week. It makes your head spin. I'm waiting for the men in white coats to take over.
why wait for them to come to you? you should just up, and go to them.
Real work business face real world issues like this all the time. Cayman is not in the real world nowhere else in the word do they have more people on work permits than the number of actual native population. Please someone name me another country. It even gets more comical than that, there are 8,000 unemployed people seeking jobs while there are about that number of non Caymanians in low level and entry level positions. Cayman is not a real place it is the land of utopia floating in an air balloon and very some a renagade will come along test the theory and punch a hole in the balloon thus bringing it to reality.
How about a slow suicide, a quick death, or cut out the cancer and maybe live another generation? Not choosing means it will be choosen for you. Don't feel bad. No one expects you all to choose.
Exactly what private sector firms have done. Get on it Mac.
The problem with the budget process is, that there is no budget process.
Seems to me, when i worked in the real world, as a senior group we forecast revenue for the year first. This was based on our audited revenues from the year before, forecast growth (or decline) and just a feel for which way the winds were blowing.
As some departments were based on velocity of business, this information was shared, along with that departments audited expences for the year(s) prior.
Each department then provided a forecast of expences, based on the forecast velocity of business. At this time they would also request additional space, equipment, or staff.
The information came back to us, if we saw a budget from a department we liked, it stayed. Most times the budgets were esent back, asked for a trim, to defer an expence, not add an employee, whatever until overall the approved forecast expences matched the approved forecast revenues.
And guess what? If someone wanted to buy a new filing cabinet (convention trip, pick up truck…) midway through the year they could not. Because of what became our Mantra.
"IT'S NOT IN THE BUDGET"
"…the real world…audited revenues…audited expenses…"
Hmmm, you must me a newbie on these Islands.
Audited books do not yet exist in the government. The Auditor general is working with the senior accountants to make this happen but it is a slow process.
Ha ha see it does not work like that in the CS. Does this mean that there are not higly competent officers in there to put together this information against which planning should take place? Absolutley not.
Rather it is simple. Ministeries do their plans, cost them, add it alll together and send to in to be collated. Who looks at these numbers and plans? Ministers. Who leaves the plans in for which there is no funding? Ministers.
CS personnel do what a Minster says. Problem is they are often asked to cut back $ but leave in programs, budget gets approved with the "right numbers"! This way as soon as budget is approved supplementary is requested. Go figure.
Tell the folks who plan to run this time to and want to form the government – consider yourselves a one term government and take the hard lines necessary to reign things in.
Right now the nice guys will destroy us in the government, the depots will destroy us. Men and women of integrity, honesty and a clarity of Cayman above frend and self is what we need as critria for the political runners.
The present proposed budget may very well be rejected by the UK Government as it is not sustainable by any streatch of the imagination. I very much suspect that much of the financial industry is presently pondering how to reduce its' footprint in Cayman. Cayman is a high cost jurisdiction to both live and work. On its' present course there is really no alternative other than income tax. The government has clearly shown its' distain toward work permit holders and the world has noticed this. The present model isn't sustainable. It's doomed to failure. The present government has made it very, very clear who are going to pay Cayman's bills.
It seems that the Ministers and Premier (Government) is not responsible for anything . Until they seriously settle down, acknowledge that they are wrong and come up with the will to do rectify it, we will always be in this position. They spend so much time spinning their own web and as one of the Ministers always llike to say "driling douwn" instead of tackling the issued. I am so sick of all of them!! I wish they would just go away- far far away!!
Is this a surprise by this defunked Government, a self appointed gardner as the Cayman Islands finance Minister, dont let me laugh my lips are chapped.
A failure in short term planning, a failure in long term planning, a failure in medium term planning, a failure in accountability, a failure not to waste boatloads of money every time they get out of bed, a failure not to hire 3x more staff than the civil service needs followed by a failure to fire them or make them productive, a failure to make Cayman a competitive offshore jurisdiction, a failure to stop crime, a failure to promote tourism. The only thing they haven't failed at is failing.
Absolutely correct. Now do something about it.
"The plan was simply ignored which is why the UK is now taking a much closer interest in the details of the Cayman government’s budget and insisting that the next one must be both credible and sustainable." – The problem I have with the FCO policies is that any party we have that is voted in by the electorate, will start off with commitments and their plan to run the economy. Most of what is in their plan, are tailored in their campaign promises. But whilst everything goes smoothly and well, the FCO interjects its plan upon the ruling party, and then the party is pressured so to speak to follow through with this plan or else UK repercussions… The ruling party then follows through and the people realise that what they vote them in to do, doesn't match with what they expected and at the end of their administration, it doesn't get done the party way. Any opposition will see this as an advantage to rally people against the government. And then because the government is elected by the people, they are pressure by people to stick to their campaign promises, and at times this is in conflict with the FCO's agreed plan. When the FCO-government plan expires, such as this 3-year agreement, the opposition then again uses this as an advantage to show the government's incompetence. If it was PPM that was in, the UDP would have probably did the same. But really people need to understand that the party of the day was put in between two conflicting situations. One to abide by the FCO's policies and orders, and second to abide by the people's will, those that voted them in. The party is left to balance the FCO wishes and people's wishes at the same time. If it fails in one, opposition gets to use it to their advantage, and it ends up making the government leaders look imcompetent. I truly believe that parties should be allowed to have more "financial independence" in order to boost the economy and the FCO should stay out or not interfere at all. Even in the private sector, when government interfere with businesses through regulations and laws, it effects people from doing business properly. It effects growth and other businesses gets advantage over other businesses. How I see it, there needs to be a clear cut separation. With good governance, the FCO oversees this completely. They appoint their Commissioner of Police. If it keeps interfering, I believe the FCO should oversee the "finance ministry" of these islands completely! If the FCO can't do this, then at least allow the elected party for the people and by the people to their finances without interference. You can't have two Captains to one ship. There will forever be conflicts no matter which party gets in. The next government that gets in because of the UK's interferences, you're going to see another repeat. I hope someone read this comment and understand what I am saying. We can put the blame on UDP, PPM all day, but we the People find ourselves in between them and the FCO, a mere branch of the UK government that represent UK interest. I am for freedom, free enterprise, laissez fare capitalism, and most of all, free government from other governments. Two governments at the same time over financial affairs????!!!! Can see why we as a people will forever have problems! Maybe this would be an interesting viewpoint andtopic that could generate good arguments. Libertarian
The above only applies if its Government policy to ruin the economy. The FCO isn't telling the Cayman Government what the Cayman government's policies should be – it's only telling it to get it's finances and expediture in balance and to put credible estimates of both into the budget. The big problem that CIG faces in doing this is that it doesn't seem to have any audited figures available and thus faces an uphill struggle in convincing the FCO that any figures that it produces are based in reality.
ok …. get ready for independence. 7 years is about all you have buddy.
Dear Libertarian, your posts are becoming increasingly pompous, illiterate and hard to follow. Somewhere there might be the odd nugget of wisdom in them. But we’ll never find it until you re-read what you’ve written, stop relying on spell-check and reacquaint yourself with some basic tools of grammar, eg sentences, paragraphs etc. Verbal diarrhea is not a sign of wisdom. Nor is your self-important habit of signing off on your ramblings.
So come on, shape up and try to write English. Unless of course it’s not your first language, in which case ignore this.
Thank you for stating the problem.
Now, please run for office and start fixing things in June 2013.
In Cayman government good plans are a dime a dozen.
What is rare or non-existent is plan execution.
Planning is somewhat easy.
Execution is really hard work.
Getting the really hard work done is not impossible; even in Cayman. It will take a new generation of political leaders who are true leaders, statesmen/women, diplomats, kind, tough, thoughtful, and (above all) ethical. I know Caymanians who fit the bill and I hope that they run for office.
Given the finance minister's failure to keep on budget and overall lack of credibility and competence, additional scrutiny should be supported by everyone. For many years now we've had incomplete and incorrect record keeping. We've been misled about budget surpluses that never existed. Even after being formally cautioned last year by the FCO, no action was taken and now we're in this pickle. We must insist upon radical changes in the public accounts methodologyand systems to increase public transparancy of how and where the current revenue is being blown. Is there anyone that disagrees with this, let them stand forward with their rationale.
This is exactly what the doctor ordered – I fully agree that as part of making a leaner meaner (and hopefully greener) efficiently run goverment, it is essential to have a plan that is based upon long-term fiscally responsible nation building that gives Caymanians, who will be casualities of Civil Service Rightsizing, real opportunity through training and cooperation with the private sector to succeed after they are weaned off the swollen Government teat. Generation Now is saying exactly what we want and need to hear. Thank you for your efforts – I will support your cause any way that I can.