Archive for June 10th, 2014
Night time fun run to raise cash for National Trust
(CNS): "Light up the Night for a Brighter Future" is the theme for a new and unique charity fun-run being organised and hosted by the National Trust and CUC. The first ever glow run in Cayman is set for 21 June in George Town. The idea is that runners and walkers will be glowing in the dark in luminous outfits as they race through the capital from 7pm. Neon face-painting, biodegradable and non-toxic UV reactive paint, glow bands should help competitors light up from head to toe in their wacky running attire.
Starting and ending at Margaritaville after they follow a looped course around George Town, the race ends with a glow after party. To encourage sign ups 50 CUC water bottles will be dispersed in anonymous runners packs and a lucky winner will find a gift certificate thanks to Logic Cayman for a brand new Apple TV!
Prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers for the male, female and children's category as well as the best glow costumes. All ages and fitness levels are encouraged to show up and get glowed up to run or walk.
Participants are encouraged to arrive for registration at 6pm and take advantage of free UV neon face painting. Additional glow items will also be on sale. Participants have the option to partake in a splash of biodegradable and non-toxic UV reactive paint and powder along the route and expect to go into extreme glow as they approach KPMG “Glo Hard or Go Home” stations.
Proceeds from this community event will benefit the National Trust for the Cayman Islands and Rotaract Blue Cayman Islands. Interested participants may register online at www.nationaltrust.org.ky. For further details email marketing@nationaltrust.org.ky or call 749-1121.
CIG runs up $8.6M travel bill
(CNS): Between 2009 and 2012 the UDP government ran up a bill of at least $8,576,554 on travel and hospitality expenses, a new report from the Auditor General has revealed, but because of poor record keeping the true figure is unknown and could have exceeded $10million. Alastair Swarbrick, said he couldn't be exact because of the very poor management as well as what appears to be a laissez faire attitude to the public purse when it came to travelling by both ministers and civil servants. Despite the constraints on government coffers at the time, Swarbrick and his team found travel expense increased during these three years by some 10% and well over half of the cash spent on travel was run-up by the Finance and Tourism ministry.
The report, which concentrated on core government, reveals it spent over $7 million on travel and a further $1.5 million on hospitality. The two ministries running up the biggest bills were the Ministry of Finance, Tourism and Development (MFTD), led at the time by former premier and current opposition leader, McKeeva Bush, and the Ministry of District Administration, Works, Land and Agriculture (DAWLA), which was led by Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, who is now speaker of the House. These two ministries represented 70% of all travel and hospitality expenditures incurred over the audit period.
Although government has now implemented a formal travel policy which addresses some of the incidents reported by Swarbrick, the government auditor said much more needs to be done as he found such serious shortcomings and problems implying abuse by both civil servants and politicians.
Individuals received expenses twice, per diem rates varied widely for the same trips, documentation for expenses was missing but requests were still paid, advances were never justified with receipts or any other evidence and written off, ministers were signing off on their own expenses and in many cases there was no formal justification for the trips made, the OAG found.
In the first three years of the United Democratic Party administration civil servants were extremely lax regarding travel expenses and the documentation to support these costs was completely lacking, the report reveals.
“I have concluded that official travel and hospitality expenditures were not managed effectively and efficiently, leading to the high likelihood that the Government mishandled significant amounts of public resources,” Swarbrick said.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday morning, the auditor general said that “no one was managing the shop” and raised his concerns that after four years the issues he raises keep being repeated and that nothing gets done.
“I found that there was an absence of well-defined policies and ineffective or absent procedures and controls. Any policies that were in place were inconsistent across government and officials were left with significant, if not complete, discretion with regards to how travel and hospitality expenditures were incurred. Monitoring and reporting of these transactions by management was virtually non-existent,” he added.
Swarbrick explained that the poor management of the records prevented his team from completing as thorough an audit as he planned, limiting its scope and preventing him from arriving at any exact figures. He said the lack of documentation to support expenses hindered the team’s ability to provide more or detailed information on how the expenses were managed or quantify or how much was mishandled or wasted.
Swarbrick listed a catalogue of shocking disregard to public money, from lavish Christmas parties and presents for people, buying booze for various hospitality events, including dinners, and social functions without any clear link made to business objectives and consideration given to value for money. Although personnel regulations in the public sector state that liquor cannot be reimbursed as travel-related expenses, in one example Swarbrick said the DAWLA spent $29,480 on three Christmas parties, which included a booze bill of $6,373, while at the MFTD, five entertainment events, including three Christmas parties, a special function, and a birthday party, also clocked up around $6,000 at the bar.
The government auditor also pointed to his concern that in some case ministers had approved their own travel claims for payment or did not provide support for their expenses but the chief financial officers paid the expense claims regardless. He said one ministry wrote off $167,000 for travel advances issued between 2003 and 2009 to a senior officials but he said there was little evidence of significant collection efforts being made.
During the three year period of the audit there were significant financial problems with government coffers and public debt Swarbrick noted. While government was trying to cut spending, including reducing the number of jobs and cutting salaries of public servants, travel costs were increasing.
“During the same period, we noted that travel and hospitality showed an upward trend of 10% over time,” he said as he raised concerns about the serious disregard for the use of public funds, adding that there was a high likelihood government mishandled significant amounts of public resources.
The auditor general noted that government has taken an important first step in acknowledging the serious shortcomings in the management of these expenditures by introducing a travel policy. But, he said, it still needs to develop the necessary practices and procedures to manage public funds and make sure they are not misused by public officials.
Swarbrick makes some eleven recommendations but many are similar to ones he has made in other reports over the last four years and by his predecessor for some ten years before that.
See the full report below and check back to CNS tomorrow for a more detailed look at some of the questionable issues surrounding the audit’s findings.