PWC report remains secret
(CNS): With just over five weeks to go before Cayman goes to the polls, there is still no sign of the value for money report which has been undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers in relation to the ForCayman Investment Alliance. The assessment undertaken by the local auditors was commissioned in accordance with the new requirements of the Public Management and Finance Law and is supposed to tell the public whether or not government’s agreement with the Dart group is a good deal for the public purse. However, although part of the deal has already been signed and sealed and a critical part of the West Bay Road gazetted, the deal remains under wraps.
At each successive post-Cabinet press briefing held since the interim minority government took over the reins of power, the ministers have indicated that they expect to be able to release the document ‘shortly’, but target dates have come and gone. Although the ministers have now indicated that the document is due before the end of April, there is no new target date and, as a result, there are no guarantees that the electorate will get to see the critical document before the 22 May, General Election Day.
Despite the importance of the FCIA to both the public purse and the wider economy, the NRA document, which was signed more one year and four months ago, has still not been made public. Although the earliest draft signed by the National Roads Authority, the former premier and the Dart Group was leaked into the public domain, that document has since been amended at least three times with major adjustments, but ithas not been released to the public.
Speaking at Thursday’s press briefing last week, Environment Minister Mark Scotland said that the value for money report was still not ready to be released as it had not been completed, owing to the latest change, which includes Dart’s agreement to expand the single lane stretch of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway from Camana Bay to the Butterfield roundabout in George Town into a duel carriageway.
Category: Politics
It’s nor secret really it’s just not in the public domain.
So it's not secret. The people just can't see it. HUH????
No excuse for this. When it is released we should have the right too see the different iterations it has gone through. It is clear that dart is now trying to give a bit more to make it look less like they are taking advantage or the people of the Cayman Islands.
We should have all the facts form the start how it evolved and how it now stands. Just another reason that none of the current UDP members including the remaining ones in Gov, Fab five whatever should see on single vote in May.
Bingo. Dart gives the former Premier and current Premier $5 million discretionary funds. They agree to whatever he wants. Pretty crappy deal for the rest of us. We'll know the full terms of the "deal" when Dart tells us.
Sadness ensues. Gnashing of teeth and wailing when we find out what we're on the hook for.
You can't pave over everything….there is always some stone or perhaps a condo that will be left uncovered.
"on the hook for"?? This is a cashless deal, exchanging property for property. The only cash flow is increased inflow into the economy, and increased in future government revenues. And, oh yeah, the increase in infastructure to benefit the people of Cayman.
Its called economic development. Novel concept, eh?
XXX I am hearing that the reason it was not released in the beginning is because PWC could not find any value for money!! If this is still the case then why has the the cart been placed in front of the horse and we are moving along as if we are getting value for money? Who is going to maintain these roads. Dart has not agreed to any maintenance, but we have agreed to giving away countless years of millions of dollars in duty concessions to Dart, and the only person getting value above and beyond the pile of money he already has is DART! We the people of the Cayman Islands is once again been taken for granted by our elected officials.
We the people should know the names of all those in the House Now and here let me let you know who was there for the past four years, and let us simply not vote for anyone with these exact names on the ballot come May 22nd:
Mckeeva Bush
Rolston Anglin
Cline Glidden
Eugene Ebanks
Kurt Tibbetts
Alden McLaughlin
Ellio Solomon
Mike Adam
Mark Scotland
Dwayne Seymour
Anthony Eden
Ezzard Miller
Arden Mclean
Moses Kirkconnell
Julianna O'Connor-Connelly
If we are going to have CHANGE, then we must CHANGE ALL THE PLAYERS listed above. They have ALL participated in our demise, some kept quiet, some ignored, some turned a blind eye, some over spent, some couldn't give a darn or care less, some are drunkards, and some are simply put fools.
If you want to vote for those that are part of the parties, then vote for NEW FACES and NEW NAMES on their panels, but please do not give us back any of who we have listed above on May 22nd, 2013.
Changing all MLAs at once would be dumb. There are a number of good, honest and capable MLAs among them. In any event, we would have to weigh them against their proposed replacements. With whom are you proposing to replace them?
Ezzard Miller and Arden McLean are the only MLA’s that deserve to be returned to office all those that sat around and gave away the country needs the booth come May.
just imagine cayman without dart right now?????
then ask yourself is it a good deal…
Just remember we went from mosquito smoke pans to where Dart found us.
When Dart came to our shores we were a lot better off than we are now. Everyone who wanted a job could find it. There was very little monies being given to politicians/ premiers to buy votes and causing corruption and laziness, there was no one closing off our roads and telling us where and when we can drive, there was much more mangrove trees along the ponds and shorelines, the international community was not out to get us, no one was trying to pour garbage into Bodden Town, in other words we were doing fine.
My life and The Cayman Islands were perfect before Dart came here. I remember those were the days when love use to reign. We danced all night to the songs they played at Galleon Beach, Holiday Inn and Royal Palms. We had zero unemployment, a population of under 30k life was good and everyone was happy and contented. Then someone had to come and steal the show, oh how I miss those days good ole Cayman 1965 to 1982 after that dog eat our Suppa.
You forgot the mosquitoes!!! Smoke pots. Men away at sea. Wondering where dinner was coming from. Yes the good old days. If you miss them I sure don’t!!
Dude – you seem to be confusing the 1990s with the 1950s. We had progressed well beyond smoke pots before Dart arrived.
I for one do miss the smoke pan because not only did they keep the Mosquitos away the Mosquitos kept the money hungry parasites away also. Men at sea was a good thing no when else in the world did 15 year old boys transform a backward society to a place where international finance resides today and where our young men became masters of the sea and favored by the maritime community. I don’t know about wondering where dinner was coming from back then because there was an abundance of seafood I could catch the biggest fish, pick enough Conch and whelks and spear fish enough Lobster also there was enough bread kind to get from the grounds. Now I really have to go hungry so yes I miss the good old days when I grew up and most certainly would not trade them for Dart or all the gold in the world because money does not buy me happiness hopefully one day you will learn that.
Where Argentina is right now highly indebted and be holding to the lender thank heavens for the UK and the USA I am not afraid to pay my taxes should it becomes necessary given poverty vs taxes I’ll pay my taxes any day.
okay, ummm, just a minute,ummm okay, imagining… imaginaging…. here's Cayman without dart, ummmmm Okay! got it. I just imagined it. what do you want to know? Oh, 1 thing I noticed is that the politicians were 28% less dirty….. and we had a lot more wetlands, more un-parkinglotted beaches and oh, oh yeah, a lot less styrofoam containers blowing around. Oh wait, downside… no wooden bridge and gazebo hanging over SMB.
You forgot one…we would be begging money from England and the World Bank and you would either be digging up a piece of cassava to eattonight with the little jack your child caught or you would be in miami or Kingston begging a job. Yep. Lets not forget Dart invested $700,000,000 here keeping our country going whether you like it or not. Before you make such stupid statements and blogs THINK!!!! If Dart gave each of us a free bar of gold we would find something wrong –probably say it would give us a hernia trying to lift it!! Lets get real Cayman. Dart is an investor…I sure hope he makes a profit on his investments as long as he keeps investing here and not somewhere else.
The proud and all sufficient Cayman Islands of which I was a part of prior to Dart did not in my memory had to beg the UK for financial assistance nor did Caymanians seeked jobs in Kingston as a matter of fact Jamaicans were seeking jobs in Cayman in the 50’s before my time but I will speak of a time period that I know in the 60’s to 2003 Cayman was always self sufficient and did just fine without Dart and not a single Caymanian complained about eating Jack and cassava. As a matter of fact we loved our simple, stress free honest and uncomplicated lifestyle prior to Dart and his development and if I was given a choice I would not have developed this country beyond 1975 and I know for sure we would still be crime free and debt free.
You are right, Dart contributed $700,000,000.00 over the past 20 years in property, businesses and buildings he now ownes.
Nontheless this is but a drop in the ocean compared to the $12,000,000,000.00 ($600 million per year annual budget) that the people of The Cayman Island contributed, over the same 20 years, in order that Mr. Dart and everyone else could enjoy the infrastructure and business enviornment that they operate in.
Just saying …….. and I am not a Dart hater ……… fortunately I have a job at a Dart owned establishment. I was working for a Caymanian owned establishment until he bought it and I am eternally greatfull that he chose to retain my services, however a few of my co-workers were not so lucky.
Cayman without Dart would be highly favored and blessed by God, as we trusted in God then and he sufficed all our needs. There were no unemployment, very little crime and no money worries our government could balance their budget and we enjoyed our Caymanian way of life free and void of political corruption and outside bad influences.
Yes 09.48, and the mosquitoes, don't forget the mosquitoes. And the marl roads…don't forget them. Oh and automobiles, we really must not forget them either, especially the ones we built here. And what is that thing we can talk to all our relatives on?? The Telly-fone?? All caymanian inventions, every single one.
If there is an apocolypse tomorrow, then we will go back to the old ways, if we survive that is. In the meantime, wake up to the world we live in now and deal with it..
Yes newbie, Johnny come lately with no return address let me give it to you straight as I know it Dart did not do one thing to help eridicate Cayman’s mosquito population Dr Marco Gigillio did that long before Dart set foot on this shore. Neither did he came here and found marl roads or pot holes they were long gone before he and you knew about us. As for invention of the automobile we always had the money to buy any kind of car that is found on the island long before be came here so we didn’t need him to come here for us to see our first car. As for the Telly-Fone thanks to Cable and Wireless in the 1960’s long before you, Dart at el got here. Oh how I wish an apocalypse would come and take the Cayman Islands back to 1950 and leave us with only with the knowledge that we have today and you would see just how well these islands would survive and progress without you and many others. Unfortunately we live in A new world and every day I see Cayman and its people change and I will have to deal with it I just hope that people like you can deal with the real changes when they come because passive Cayman and Caymanians are a dying breed and a new change is coming for people like you and I wonder where you gonna run to? Bermuda and Bahamas I hope.
What benefit have the Cayman government and the people seen from the NRA and FCIA deals? Zero! All the work is done by Dart controlled companies it is a terrible deal and the udp should be voted out of office for it in may
Imagine Cayman without Dart I see it now wonderful! Is he gone yet?
What a beautiful sight that would be. A cayman controlled by Caymanians remember those days. The days we were in control of our own destiny. Back before the Dart takeover.
How sweet that would be.
Why the secrets and who commissioned the audit? If it was a government commissioned, then why is it the people are the last to know the content of the report?
So sad how things operates on these shores.
Because you are living with a third world government run island.
You have forgotten to mention that said "third world government" has been overwhelmingly and financially propped up and funded by Dart. Modus Operandi anyone?
Thank heavens Cayman is still British and the UK still have the final say not Dart or any premier. Dart don’t rule the Cayman Islands he is just a subject of HRH just like the rest of us and nothing more. He has no more power, money or influence than HRH so personally I could care less about Dart the real power is HRH that’s the lady with the power money and influence. She can stop Dart and his band of followers but he can’t stop her and her armies.
Actually, she is H.M. rather than HRH and so you seem to think she is a medieval monarch. She is governed by the law as well.
All laws in the Cayman Islands and everyother British terrority is governed by Her Royal Highness all need her assent in order to pass as law. Dart does not have this power so until he can over rule HRH I don’t worry or could care less about him. He has to purchase Cayman HRH owns it and can pass a property tax law on the blink of an eye that is power my friend.
How about asking the Dart corporation to release a copy of this report? We know that any UDP Government (Lite or Phat) wants to keep it a secret for their own reasons. This would give us an indication of how transparent Dart may be when dealing with the next government. Just a thought.
The "ForCayman Investment Alliance" can save a lot of money by simply registering itself as a church.
Churchesin Cayman apparently can operate outside the law and outside any form of governance that asks for proof of value for money.
See? Prayer really does work……..providing you pray to Cayman's current gang of eternally hounourables.
Is it not interesting that the findings of the PWC report matter not to the richest "Caymanian" today?? (Mr. Kenneth Dart himself.)
Clearly, whether it proved to be a good deal for the country or not, that "Caymanian" was determined to blindly follow through from the very start.
(Yet some people still suggest and encourage us to hold such an individual in a high or respectable regard?!)
Therefore, we can safely deduce that this "alliance" is indeed not "ForCayman" after all.
*It is crucial for all of us to understand the priorities and mindset of certain influential entities in our midst today – and as we move forward as well.
(@ DartPuppets# – Commence the "troll" button attacks as you have done on my previous (albeit unsigned) posts.)
However, I would prefer a bit of meaningful dialogue … but I am not hopeful.
🙂
– Whodatis
We well know that many think that because Dart has lots of money he must be some kind of saint or savior. We act like he/they are the answer to all our problems because of the endless bank account.
There is truth to the saying "money is the root of all evil." History will look back on this deal as the lose of Cayman by the Cayman people. We are selling out our future for some short term gain.
Dart will accomplish his/their goal to own and control a Caribbean country. The sad part is it used to be our country!
It is the love of money fool, that is the root of evil, not the money itself. Try living without money and you'll find yourself living by the whip and/or the gun. Go to school!
Dart does not want the responsibilities of the Cayman Islands no more than a Casanova wants the responsibility of several babies and mamas dramas. Let those Caymanians who are foolish enough to believe that Dart got their backs ask for independence from the UK and we will be like the foolish young girl who believes that having a baby for a guy who already had multiple baby mamas and is in court for child support will get her different results or favor status dream on Cayman we mean no more than that as I see it we are good while the going is good. Like the young love struck girl who finds herself stuck with a baby and forced to beg for welfare while her Prince Charming has moved on to a newer conquest so will our investors when we get the wonderful independence that we so crave and we are forced to implement taxes to pay for our army, embassies, diplomats international trades and relations just to name s few. Please get rid of the UK and lets see just how much Dart will have our backs.
Keep hoping, Whodatis. I think people are gradually waking up to the immovable force that Dart is.
There is no need to release this report, just read the CHEC deal and I'm sure Dart got a better deal than the Chinese, if thats posible. Dart and his team must be laughting all the way to the bank, shame on them for taking advantage of the Cayman Islands Government in its darkest and weakest years. What a bunch of bungling idiots, we need to remove any trace of the UDP old and new hopefuls from any part of a future government in this country. Be very careful Caymanians who you vote for, remember when they are elected you are stuck with them for four years.
Dart did worse to Argentina and Greece. I think he's screwed us less because he wants to live here. Damn shame we let our politicians give away the farm to him.
So who is holding this from public scrutiny?
And why would they. When will this bunch learn that failure to disclose prompts suspicion, it is perfectly fair to presume that if it is being witheld, then the report is critical of those that did the deal, which in turn suggests it was not above board, some person or persons did this for personal benefit. If these presumptions are unfair, then publication of the report will clear their names. If it continues to be held then those holding it back are the ones to be suspicious of, and that has to be the current Premier!
I'm sorry but I want to see all versions before each little bit was amended.
You can't keep changing the agreement until it is value for money.
The original agrreement was signed and that will show us what the government of the dayw as all about., not what it is now trying to portray itself as.
Goodness me, could it be that the politicians don't want Cayman to see something nasty?
Or maybe they want to alter the report before publishing, but PWC would, I suspect, blow the whistle on that…
If there is no issue, this should be in the public domain now…
Why wasn't the Dart agreement not subjected to Centeral Tendering? and if this is outside the Procurement Process, why is it not sufficient to trigger a halt of the project until value for money is determined?
Excellent questions. I think you and I both know "why". The best of what we can do now is to make sure the people who sold us out never get a chance to do so again.
Why wasn’t the Dart agreement not subjected to Centeral Tendering?
Tender for what exactly? It’s a massive deal with likely hundreds of individual gives and gets – more importantly it doesn’t involve CIG paying any money directly because they don’t have any (they will pay some new costs through operating of new infrastructure etc but hopefully they at least thought that bit through.). Are you suggesting running tenders for every part – and how would CIG pay for any of it unless bidders would accept landswaps and concessions as payments? Who else would have have the capability to build the road self funded and need that much concession in return? Even if another company could have built the road in exchange for concessions/landswaps other aspects of the deal, like spend on the new hotel wouldn’t have gone ahead so impact to the economy would have been muted. This deal was as much about trying to do something for the Cayman economy as much as it was about getting any specific item like the road.
Totally agree that the Business case for the deal should be public, and the PWC report as well, but Central Tenders isn’t the answer to mega projects like where both the benefits received and costs are very flexible and undefined at the start. Use CTC for defined projects like building a school, supply acquisition, etc.
Remember what Mark Scotland promised us on radio
Did Thursday night's incident have anything to do with your calling the road a "duel" carriageway?