PAC to examine Brac paving
(CNS): The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has confirmed that the members will be examining three of the auditor general’s latest reports on Tuesday, including the controversial revelations regarding the paving of parking lots on Cayman Brac with public money. Moses Kirkconnell will be calling witnesses tomorrow to answer the committee’s questions regarding the audit office’s performance audit on the cash wasted on overseas medical care, the update on the use of government’s fuel card system and the public interest report that revealed government had spent $500k of tax payer’s money on private commercial lots and driveways.
The committee has examined only one report since the PPM member for Cayman Brac took over the chairmanship of the PAC after North Side MLA Ezzard Miller resigned from the job in April 2011 some eighteen months ago. Last October Kirkconnell chaired the examination, over a period of several days, of a report about government procurement which used the controversial issue of the failed Cohen and Co loan as a case study. Since then, however, the committee has not met in public.
The member for North Side stepped down last year, despite having made relative progress at the time on pushing government entities to complete their annual reports. However, Miller said he did not feel as though he had the support of the membership, given their persistent and consistent failure to attend meetings.
Since then there have been no meetings of PAC in which the state of government financial reporting has been examined. Despite changes to the law to allow government not to complete annual reports for many of the missing years and promises to have entire government accounts completed for the 2010/11 financial year, there has been no sign of that report.
Tuesday's meeting is open to the public and will take palce at the Legisaltive Assembly at 10:30am.
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Category: Politics
While PAC is examining the money wasted on paving can we ask PAC to look at a few other things as well?
The money Julie has wasted on travel i.e. the cell phone expo in Spain, the farming trips to Honduras & Jamaica to name a few.
The cost of having a full time body guard/ personal assistant who like wise travels the globe in first class.
The cost of bringing a friend from Florida to run the Cayman Brac yearly clean up program. Wastage caused by having political cronies on boards that are clueless and who's only assets are being die hard JuJu followers.
The cost of government paying for a hotel for her even in Cayman Brac, her home constituency?
The cost of requiring the district commissioner or his deputy to meet her at the airport in Cayman Brac for every trip that she makes back to Cayman Brac(could be to assit with the several ice chests of frozen food she brings).
All government events in Cayman Brac must be delayed for her arrival ( nornally 30 to 45 minutes late)
These are just a few of the places where JuJu is wasting money out of control.
Sounds like Brac-ers and Little Cays are the ones to pull on her choker-chain.
There are more questions than answers. Get Mr. Swarbrick to do an audit,
Just my opinion here, but on the Hon Julianna O'coonnor-Connolly… In all fairness while she has done some amazing things for the Brac, the businesses did get a perk that no-one paid for directly, but indirectly even now with the new duties, raised this and that. One thing though, even her bold oppossers got the same benefits. hmmmm???
If I can call the good ideas, good, I too must be able to call the bad ideas bad. Sorry Ms Julie, as much as I would like to support you on this one, I can't.
Neither can I support those who hate and call names etc when they too accepted the paving.
Grand Cayman voters – PLEASE stop her. If we make sure UDP doesn't go back in as the government in power then Julianna will not be a Minister with the power to waste our money anymore.
I don't think there is much that can be done about the money wasted to date on this matter. Trying to get it back is going to be virtually impossible.
HOWEVER, the controls, checks and balances which were clearly not in place and which allowed these politicians to run wild and do whatever the hell they please with our cash is where the problem lies. There is clearly NO effective controls in place. These politicians spend whatever they like and do whatever they like without any concience or accountability. There are no effective checks and balances in place to stop them, and no consequences when they do run wild. Simple checks such as:
1. take away the Government check-book from these clowns
2. Put in place effective CONTROLS on who can access cash and when
3. Make there sufficiently painful CONSEQUENCES to deter them from doing this again.
Fines, name-and-shame humiliation, and ultimately being fired (and barred from re-election) should be the consequences of failing to follow protocall. Reductions in salary and/or termination of salary, should be the first step.
Slap a $500k surcharge on Ju-Ju. If only. I would give her $10 credit for the work she did driving the vehicle so everyone was sure where the improper government spending came from.
Voters have power to do something about this. The PAC and the Auditor General have brought to light the XXXXX actions under these Ministries (Julianna's and Mark's and Mac's) it is really up to us to make sure they are not voted in again next year!
I’m so glad to see that these issues are going to be examined and not swept under the rug. With the government taking so much from people and businesses on the island they owe it to the people to make sure it is used correctly. I hope the PAC does a thorough job of reviewing these issues and makes its findings public.
Don't speak too soon now…..Even if we were going to court I would remind you of the SACRED VESSEL incident where the argument by the DEFENSE (if you want to call it that) was about MORALITY and NOT LEGALITY.
Because it's is morally and ethically wrong to do something does not make it legally wrong.
The defense won the case in the stupidess of ways which makes me seriously wonder about the courts themselves.
So in light of this I would tell you to always ensure your seatblet is properly fastened cause between our police and our justice system it's like a carnival out there and the ride may not stay on the rail system at times if ever at all.
We have people writing letters that would send me or you to jail so quick you would have to build a pipe system to us for us to see daylight. We would be so deep in the prison we would come out speaking Chinese.
BUT OTHERS……they can get found with the gun in hand, smoke still coming from the barrel, powermarks all over our clothing, skin under the nails of the victim, a long history of fueding between the two parties, a public made threat of violence against the victim and ooh yeah standing over their dead body with atleast 4 people seeing the shooting and hearing them say "take that you……" and they still don't even go in for questioning…
Then the other bunch is chomping at the bit because they want it to be them that get's the charges thrown out….
If this was not so serious it would be laughable.
So very sick of all the people takling about this and that, and NO ONE TAKING ACTION. XXXX. I only hope and pray that we the people will wake up and vote these embarassing fools out before there is nothing left to leave the next generation but debt and crime
It might be too late already. Because Caymanians did not and will not take action. Can you see a better Caymanian run government in the future? No? Me too!
Sure I can see a better run government. Get the UDP self serving bunch out.
Incompetence flows from incompetent leadership, whether it's a business or government, leaders that use their position to benefit themselves have to face the consequences.
We also have three police investigations going on. At least one of which has been under 'examination' for going on three years now…God help the Cayman Islands.
Who decides to prosecute?
We will see how they respect our hard earned money paid to government and remember
God help the Cayman islands? I guess in Caymanian Christianity they left out the part about
God helping those who HELP THEMSELVES! Caymanians don't do that. Plan accourdingly.
Mr Mose, Do your job, what she done is not right, she should have to pay this money back her self. But if you do that you might get what Mr Brian Tomlinson from NRA got out the door you go, just stand up for her. You are a good man.
Just wondering if any money has left in the national building fund.Something is morally wrong with the premier handling those funds.I want to see the auditor general do a report on it.Because not everything that glitters is gold.Keep the pressure on guys,not everybody that got the scholarships needed the public money(Wealthy UDP supporters Kids and UDP cronies).
Wandering off on a bit of a tangent. What has happened to the FRAMEWORK FOR FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ( FFR)? There was much publicity when bush was dealing with the budget that a specific condition for the FCO’s approval of hisproposals was that the original FFR document signed by bush had to be passed into LAW by 30 September – by my reckoning, the LA has less than two weeks to implement this piece of MANDATORY legislation – anybody heard anything recently ?
Absolutely nothing is going to come out of the PAC review of the AG’s Report on the Brac paving fiasco. The UDP will portray it as a political attack on Ju Ju personally, and their party generally. She will throw a tantrum, and none of the government officials involved will have the cojones to drop her in the shit, because their jobs will be at stake. As somebody else suggested, lets’s get it over with and leave it to the Auditor General to press the Attorney General for a response, and assuming that he will get no help there, he should refer it to the ANTI- CORRUPTION COMMITTEE.
This will be a true test of Moses' character. He will have to question his Brac & Little Cayman colleague about decisions that have been flagged as possibly illegal by the Auditor General and were clearly WRONG WRONG WRONG but have the approval of some of his constituents (emphasis on SOME, not ALL). But all of those business owners and church goers are voters. It will be interesting to see if he handles this situation by doing what is right or doing what is politically expedient, i.e. asking weak flim flam questions and not really making any point.
We want to know which private parking lot was paved first (Julie's church?) and why, which business was paved first (the Deputy District Commissioner's?) and why, which business was paved next (Elvis's liquor store?) and why. Everyone on the Brac knows this. Let's see if PAC and the chairman Moses dig this out.
More questions. If the decisions made by the Deputy Premier were illegal, what consequences are there? How much has Julie (a lawyer) spent on getting legal advise on this? Why she couldn't read the law herself?
Perhaps PAC should pass this one onto the Anti Corruption Committee.
How did we the people end up paying for CNB's parking lot. Ask Julie that one.
Any UDP connections in CNB ??? On the Baord or at Executive level?
Real test is next May to see if the CBLC voters vote her back in again.
High time too.This kind of nonesense has to stop.Cant imagine what election time will look like.That kind of money could have been put to a much better use.Party system has to go and let the independents put things back on track.
The photograph in this article has been on line for ages.
My question: Why is Ju JU operating a piece of heavy equipment with no hardhat, steel toe boots, and safety glasses. Also, does she have the training to operate the the equipment?
Worker safety is not a priority in Cayman.
Oops! Sorry, Ju Ju is a politician, therefore she does not do any real work. All she and her colleagues do is attend selected meetings, eat the donuts, and then tell everyone how hard they work. Nice gig if you can get it.
2 words. Third world.
Now I would have thought the Director of Complaints would have had a thing to say about that given the long forgotten Health and Safety at Work Act brought up the other week !
"PAC to examine Brac paving"
Nice headline, but will anything come of the "examination"? Probably not.
Corruption is the elephant in the room. No one in government wants to get squished.
We talk about West Bay being a "welfare state" but they have nothing on Cayman Brac.
Cayman Brac, and their politicians, have always used this sing song about being left out, and not being treated equally; so, they must get everything they want and don't even ask for.
And that is the tune that JUJU will be shouting from the church bench. Just wait and see.
Cayman Brac isn't economically viable. For what reason, I am not going to venture to try and state that I know. No matter what we throw at Cayman Brac or how much alsphalt we use, the economy isn't going to take off.
One thing I do know, I don't go there too often, because I find it hard to pay CI$15.00 for a box of cereal!! Perhaps that is where the problem is?!
But, as long as we get smooth talking people, who can promise green grass but no rain, there will always be those who will swallow it up and believe it.
We do not pay $15 for a box of cereal. I know things are expensive here but please stop posting ridiculous information.
$14.99??????
Not $15…but $5-$7. $7.99 for Milk. But what surprised me the most was who's store I was in.
Good deal. I feel confident that Mr. Mose as chair of the committee will push for what is good and prudent for the country, and not bend to special interest group(s). Perhaps he can even bring the UDP members of the PAC into a more nationalistic view.
Regarding the paving project on the Brac: I don't think that we should try to collect the cost from the recipients of those parking lot pavings — they are not all 'vote buying'. Look, if a government representative approaches a business and offers a benefit at no cost to the recipient, the onus is not upon the recipient to ensure that the project is vetted and properly funded. Put another way, those businesses that refused the paving probably saw their property values decline in light of their neighbor's paving.
You and I — the people — shouldn't have had to pay for this project, as it wasn't infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.), but enhancement of private businesses. I personally think that all the blacktop on the Brac is contrary to the simplicity and 'nativeness' of the island, but that's just my view.
Who should pay for it then? hmmmm. Who caused it to happen without vetted approval? I feel fairly confident that the game has been played and the paving laid, and nobody will be financially accountable for it, however political and fiscal accountability seems well within the boundaries of the PAC. Either way, good on the PAC for helping to protect the best interest of these islands. I don't envy any of you the miles of interference you must have had to gone through……….. miles to go before you sleep.
Cha he nah no better
My question is, what deh hell are they going to do about it but chat BS They are going to waste time and our money doing absolutely nothing! They are all culpable for this gross misuse of funds(never heard one complaint during paving) and will seldom act against one another so all this hype is just political postering and antics. Government is just like porn promising everything deliverying absolutely nothing. Now you know poor JuJu hands has been guide by the Good Lordand who is going to judge him eh? Not me said the Cat!
Who is the Bracker at the helm of the paving machine? Is that government uniform?
Yes. Government regulates high heels and a polyester dress as the new uniform. Usually worn with a green headband or scarf. We are trying to change this to a French Maid's outfit but are meeting resistance…
NO NO NO French Maid r u kidding not a pretty site !!!!!!!!
French maids do not have clean hands or pure hearts!
Duhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
I was thinking a Klingon outfit.