Elections office re-opens with cheques for staff
(CNS): Problems with financial difficulties, the handover to a new team and the change of responsibility from the Portfolio of Internal Affairs to the Home Affairs Ministry have been addressed and the Elections Office reopened Monday with normal office hours after its temporary closure, which had raised concerns among workers and service providers. The new supervisor of elections said that his new team is now responsible for all of the outstanding bills, and the final stipend payment requests for staff were being processed and were expected to be ready for collection from the office in Smith road by Tuesday afternoon.
Wesley Howell told CNS that there had been a number of issues to resolve, not least the office’s budget overspend for 2013 as a result of an election and a referendum in the same 12 month period.
“The new Supervisor of Elections team are responsible for the processing of all outstanding 2012-2013 bills for the Elections Office which was incurred by the previous administration,” Wesley Howell explained. “I am pleased to advise that the final stipend payment requests for staff are being processed by the financial staff in the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is my expectation isthat the stipends cheques for election office workers will be ready for collection for Elections Office on July 9th starting at 1pm.”
He added that payments to vendors were also expected to be processed during this week, which would allow for the books for the Elections Office under the Ministry of Home Affairs, formerly the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs, to be closed for the year end.
“Once this process is complete and the 2012-2013 books are clear, the new Supervisor Team will be working with the fFinancial and aAdmin staff within the Portfolio of the Civil Service for the 2013-2014 budget year," Howell stated.
He explained that the delays with the post-election payments were down to normal delays with financial year end processing as well as the need to secure funds to cover the overspend by the Elections Office for the 2012-2013 financial year. In addition, the delays were compounded, Howell said, by the demands on the finance and administrative resources to execute the reshuffling of departments between ministries and portfolios, as a result of the reorganization of government since the elections.
Howell said that he expected the details of candidates' election expenses would also be completed by the end of Tuesday.
Check back to CNS for details and analysis of how much the candidates spent on their general election campaign.
Category: Politics
Some people just don’t know how much unappreciated work goes into runningan election. A lot of that work was done for free! What have you done for your country besides run your mouth and put down Born Caymanians.
Those responsible for the over spending and providing family members with jobs during the last election will unfortunately now never be held responsible and the public coffers take a hit again. what a shame?
How about you simply say thank you for an election that was conducted free and fair and without violence. Sometimes, we don't realize how lucky we are to have what we have until we lose and are looking back at the "good ol days"