Road policy proves costly
(CNS): The public of the Cayman Islands has been spending big bucks on private paving companies to pave public roads on Grand Cayman since 2010 while the government's paving machine sits in Cayman Brac. An FOI request to the National Roads Authority filed by Cayman News Service has revealed that during this time there have been eleven public roads paved in the Cayman Islands at a cost of $1.7 million dollars to Caymanians. Officials with the NRA said the cost of bringing the government’s paving equipment would have been CI $5,000. However, they were unable to say exactly where the equipment is or what purpose it is serving there.
“I don’t know exactly the equipment’s location and I assume the equipment is being used for paving,” noted National Roads Authority Works Manager, Engineer and Operations Brian Chin Yee.
Of the eleven public roads that were paved over the last four years, seven were done by ARCP, which is owned by Peter Young, while the other four were done by Island Paving Ltd, which is owned by Hubert and Jay Bodden. Former government minister Mark Scotland was the Managing Director of ARCP prior to running for public office, however he said he relinquished his interest in the company during his time in parliament, which ran from 2009 to 2013.
Scotland has now rejoined the company.
He explained why a decision to bring the paver back was not made in more instances at the time.
“The installation we have in Cayman Brac is for the most part a permanent one, which involves machinery and personnel that would be costly to move back and forth regularly,” said Scotland. He added that the real question was whether government should be in the business of paving to begin with.
“The government uses private contractors to do their buildings and it should be the same for roads. The thing with this business is that the material-to-labour ratio is about 80 percent to 20 percent. What it means is that you can easily have people sitting around with nothing to do. This is not good for any business, let alone the government.”
He added that the government doesn’t need the overheads and it was already a challenge trying to downsize.
“As the government, you don’t want to get into a situation where you are paving just to create work for your labour force,” said Scotland, who pointed out that business is extremely slow at the moment and it is worse when government competes with the private sector.
The mMinister with responsibility for roads during the period referred to was Juliana O'Connor-Connolly, who is now serving as the Speaker of the House.
The list of Road works done from 2010 to 2013 is as follows:
2010-2011
Windward – Southward to End – ARCP
Frenchman Drive – ARCP
Elgin Avenue – ARCP
West Bay Rd-Fire Station to Four Way – ARCP
Hell Road – ARCP
Batabano Road – ARCP
2011-2012
WaterCourse Road – IPL
Conch Point Road – IPL
Clifton Hunter Frank Sound Rd – ARCP
2012-2013
Boatswain Bay Road – IPL
Fountain Road – IPL
2013-2014
Linford Pierson HWY – IPL
Category: FOI
JOCC shipped the paving stuff to the Brac to pave her friend's driveways and buy votes. Once that was done she probably didn't care enough to ship it back – or maybe Mr. Scotland advised against it. After all what's $1.7m of govt money? JOCC can spend that in one weekend of "official business".
WHAT A SHAME!!!!!
If you think this is anything , just wait until you get the facts about how Mark Scotland screwed up the Health laws of the Cayman Islands.Just look at CINICO and see what he did to the SHICK policy and how he caused the rates of that policy to skyrocket and cause more hardship for the people of the Cayman Islands.
Mark and the other politicians dont care about the people, only when they want our X. Politicians do everthing to make our lives hell.
Frankly this doesn't seem like big bucks to me for 11 different road projects. Please don't expand ERA. Just hire the private sector when there is a paving job to do. Then when it's done you don't have to keep paying to keep them around.
One have to ask, what do we really want? we speak of a bloated Civil service, get rid of them! privatize some of CIG companies.
Now CIG is doing just that, and look at the negative comments. Caymanians do not know what they want.
As far as i can remember, CIG never had any equipment to pave roads, they rusted down 20 years ago.
This equipment was bought for the Brac because the two private companies cost to do them there, would be prohibeted.
Let the private companies build the roads, they have to survive. Keep the equipment in the Brac for the two lesser Islands.
We all know what is needed, the only thing holding back what needs to be done it seems are the politicians, because they need something out of everything.
The next thing they will want is more money ( handouts). How much revenue do they contribute to the budget? Every thing that is built in G. Cayman they expect to have the same in the Brac. It is high time the politicians put the lid on their wants. They get duty consessions on everything, but the people in G.Cayman have to pay for our thoughts.
I'm not following this, OK so the paving equipment is in the Brac but you presumably still need materials and men to run that equipment, so either the crew that are needed to run this are doing nothing or are employed in other Government jobs and do this work in addition to their main jobs, or have been redeployed, or downsized?
$1.7mio over 4 years runs about 400k per year, that doesn't buy a lot of men or materials to be sitting around, unless they are fully employed doing something else and just 'borrowed' for the paving jobs?
What am I missing? Even if they had the equipment where are the men, do they contract them in when they need them, and if so from where?
i dunno if im understanding this correctly… and feel free to correct me if im wrong but wouldnt it make sense in the long run to buy equipment for Grand Cayman and leave the old stuff in Cayman Brac for them to use?
that way the government would have their own stuff to use here, generating jobs for Caymanians and saving money…
Umm – they bought stuff and shipped it to the Brac to pave Juliana's friends driveways, and there it sits unused whilst Grand uses private contractors. And your solution is to buy yet more equipment so it can sit unused in Grand whilst they still hire private contractors? You realise they could just stick the stuff in the Brac on a barge and have it back here in a couple of days, right?
In any sane country and based on the facts regarding road paving on Cayman Brac, O'Connor-Connolly would have been found guilty of abusing her position in office and jailed accordingly. As it is, these people are impervious to justice. She will ultimately be judged by the God she claims to serve.
Are you a heavy equipment dealer/Vendor?
Ping ping politics = ping pong paving!
This is factually incorrect. Mr. editor its a cost to every citizen who live and employ government services in the Cayman Islands.
You mean every “resident”. Our revenue collection system is entirely non-discriminatory.
No it is quite discriminatory against non-Caymanians.
Stop being so contentious people, make ya money send go home eh!
The residents actuall contribute a lot more money to this nonsense than the citizens.
My question is, why setup a permanent road team and equipment in the Brac and not have one in Grand Cayman??
EXACTLY!!
So, what Mark is saying is that, while he was in Govt they sent the equipment over to the Brac as a permanent fixture to compete with the private sector in the Brac for road paving. BUT, here in Grand cayman where his road works company is located he does not want Govt to compete with the private sector when it comes to road building works?
09:33, from the eternal pages of Mac's bible, Mark was only following his Leaders own words, "my hands were clean and my heart was pure"…….. at the time…..
What? Brac got a private road builder?
OMG!! It's another case of genius cayman business acumen!!!!!!
How convenient. Leave the company while you are in office then rejoin after leaving. No chance of conflict there. LOL
Classic! Let's engage one of the accounting firms to do a study which will cost $$$ to tell us whether the equipment should be brought back. : )
Third world
The paving machine never recovered from being caught with JuJu in those embarrassing compromising photos and hurled itself off the bluff in the middle of the night out of shame.
First of all, I am a Cayman Bracker. Well, this is a total disgrace to CIG. Mostly to blame and needs to be held accountable is former Premier Julianna. She was the prime person to have all the "private roads and churches parking lots" paved on the Brac and a huge expense. This project was done without approval. Julianna was "vote buying". What a shame and lack of accountable of finances.
I know that the paving improves the roads and parking lots on the Brac, but those that were good friends of Julianna, are the ones that really should be re-paying CIG for pavement of roads.
All I have to say, needs accountability and responsibility and policies to pertect CIG and Caymanians money. Julianna you need to resign today from MLA and any CIG position!!!!!
I'm hoping the financial crimes unit is building a case against her right now.
I used to think think that Jamaica was the most corrupt Island in the caribbean, but The Cayman Islands has surpassed them long time! Now the question is when are we going to charge those politicians who manipulate the system to take advantage of our finances.
Marco! Start demanding that every penny be accounted for when monies are spent on any government project, whether by PWD or private sector contractors. How in the world are they allowed to deplete our finances to the tune of $800,000.00 paving private properties, and try to justify it by claiming that it is Nation Building. That's bull shit! The only thing I see being built is their insatiable stomach.
I am sure the cost to local drivers due to the messed up paving of island heritage round-about was greater than 1.7m…I am so happy they finally fixed the gradient of the island heritage roundabout ….I wonder how many mishaps occurred there!
The irony that it is an insurance company. I wish we could request to see how many accidents occurred on that round-a-bout …..they only fixed it weeks ago ……they also did a poor job with that one in prospect by the auto spa I remember a time when every morning a car slide off of that paving job.
Maybe the government shouldn't be in the business of paving roads but they should at least set standards and ensure these companies that do pave don't endanger our lives!
If there was mandatory full disclosure of personal interests then we could avoid lots of issues.
Where is the traffic/roads assessment report?How long is it going to take to see it?
The report will be released in 4yrs, when the CIG has paid someone else $2,000,000 to produce a report on the report that the report is on.
No vehicle being driven at a speed appropriate to a JUNCTION (25mph) ever slipped off at this location.
If you are talking about the Auto Spa roundabout then bullshit! I have experienced "black ice" type traction every time a light rain falls. The chips in the curbstones (representing hundreds of dollars of vehicular damage per chip, and thousands of hours of traffice back-up) tell the truth!
Wow, so basically Mark just admitted what many of us suspected – that he and his former UDP collegues moved the equipment to the Brac so they could get the jobs. SMH. XXX
Mark Scotland you should be ashamed of yourself!! Technically what was done here, let say I own a septic company, I get into politics and is made to be in charge of waste management, I relinquished my ownership in the septic company, then all government contracts are directed to this same company, I am voted out and then rejoined the company…..folks if this doesn't raise any eyebrows then cayman deserves everything it gets!!!!
What screwed Mark was when he refused to carry out what was signed by the Dart family and CIG.
He was reluctant to give the green light on this deal, jeopardizing our way of life, becaue he thought the Bdden Towners would vote for him should he stop the waste managment facility.
Now look at where we are today, faced with this mess. I say take them out in the city quare and flog them. O for the good old days!!!
Mark Scotland: A true Caymanian Patriot. This is what history books are filled with son.
That is soo funny. They don't know where they are!!! Hahaha. They are either lying,stoopud, or most likely they don't give a rats ass. I tell ya, if you can get over being upset and give up on your 'right way to do things' this place is a hoot!! It just keeps on giving and giving. I am so tickled by this story I am this close to signing my name. I'm giddy. Oh lord, it's gonna be tough coming down from this one…..
CNS, how can you possibly take yourselves as a ligitimate new house when your headline is completely unsubstanciated? 1) you are making assumptions that the private sector cost more per unit placed than the public sector. 2) you have misquoted the ownership of IPL as Mr. Jay passed long ago (God rest his soul). 3) You have reported no hard data of what the contract works consisted of, for all we know the $1.7 million spent may have been a hell of a deal for the people of the Cayman Islands and in that case, let the government continue with having no idea where or what their equipment is.
Get your crap together, I know you can do better than this.
but the government has already paid for the machinery which is now sitting idle. Any private contract will have to have the cost/hire on the expensive machionery built in to the fees it is being paid. The fact that we have the machinery to do the work and it has disappeared is a complete wasts of money and shows the government is either incompetant or corrupt, especially as they are taking about cuts to government expendeniture. It all stinks
The machinery not sitting idle. We working every day paving some where.
Minister for Tourism, sure made it possible for them to even pave roof tops if they bwanted. More taxpayers money sent off to the Brac to assist idlers. It is hardly anywhere left in the Brac to pave. There are more roads there and not an house in sight, just paving the way for the future. I wonder when all the paving is done what will government have to provide or subsidise for them to survive. Just a sick mentality.
The new NRA board must do something now
So that they can join Brian Tomlinson?
Well done Juluana and Moses proud members of PPM. If you had any pride you would be embarrassed for wasting our money and vote buying. How is this not against the anti corruption laws when so blatant?
How did Moses have anything to do with the kit being shipped there during the UDP reign?
I am sure a cost analysis was conducted in the past and it was determined that it was more cost effective for government to do its own paving! Hence, the reason why they bought their own equipment and the reason the government equipment was sent to the brac and not those belonging to the private companies! It would seem timely that this equipment was sent to the brac as UDP took over as it benefited 2 of their Minister's political and business interests. Also, the argument that road maintenance is not constant is false as a proper road maintentance program for Grand Cayman would demand otherwise.
What a load!
Mark I knew I was not mistaken about you. Did you really said that without laughing, or crying, or scared? I can't believe you really did that, sent the government's equipment up to the Brac so your equipment could get work. Wow!! Kurt what are you going to do about it? Are you going to bring it back, are you upset about it? Are you goiing to speak up about how horrible you feel over what happened? We know that you don't really do much but do you think you could manage to do something about this!! Or is this Ozzie's job, can't really remember who does what any more. Scandalous!!