Politics
New school costs defended by ministry
(CNS): Although the cost of building and running the Clifton Hunter High School has been one of the biggest political footballs for more than five years, the deputy chief officer in the education ministry defended the project last week. Christen Suckoo said the jury may still be out on value for money but the school was a category five building that was already being widely used by the community, aside from being a state-of-the-art high school. Including legal costs, changes, repair work and the internal fit out, Suckoo said the final figure for Clifton Hunter was around $110 million. However, the annual running costs for the school compared well with the John Gray campus, despite having far more sophisticated facilities.
Suckoo told the new Public Accounts Committee last week that lessons had been learned. He said there was no doubt that a proper business case for the schools should have been made and that, as government had been warned, the original pre-tender price given by Tom Jones International (TJI) of around $58 million was way too low, which was where the problems started.
The job had stalled for several months when the general contractor, sub-contractors and government all got into a legal battle after TJI walked off the site, and afterwards a considerable amount of repair work had to be done. This was then followed by design changes ordered by the education minister at the time, Rolston Anglin, who did not like the concept of mixed and open learning included in the original design. As a result, more walls were added inside the building to create traditional classrooms.
But despite the increase in the anticipated cost of the building, Suckoo said that the annual operating costs were around $2.6 million, including all contractual services. That compared very well to the more than $2.2 million it costs to run the old John Gray school site, which has no playing fields. He said the ministry was pleasantly surprised at the efficiencies in the building, which are keeping costs down.
Suckoo said several sporting events are taking place at the school and numerous requests have been made to use the fields, including one from the cricket association, which wants to use the pitch, given the problems at the Smith Road field. The deputy chief officer pointed to an international volleyball tournament held there recently and said the sporting facilities would help with sports tourism. He said the preforming arts centre was also in demand by the community.
He admitted that teachers had recently complained about the design as they had found there wasn’t enough shelf space, among other issues which were being addressed.
Suckoo also told the committee that the part-finished John Gray site was in a water-tight stage and preserved, awaiting a future construction re-start whenever the ministry is the given nod.
Mac in PAC attack
(CNS): The opposition leader took aim at Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick during last week’s Public Accounts Committee hearing, telling the committee he was not prepared to take Swarbrick's findings at face value. McKeeva Bush, the UDP leader, said PAC needed to call more witnesses to get to the truth of the auditor general’s claims, many of which are directly linked to the UDP’s time in office. Bush also raised objections to closed door meetings to approve payments to the auditor and asked to see more evidence of what the office had done. During the two day meeting members scrutinized three reports from Swarbrick’s office that pointed to inappropriate board and political interference, and Bush questioned the right of the office to “besmirch” people without given them a chance to defend themselves.
PAC was examining three reports by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) that had raised concerns about inappropriate board and political interference at several statutory authorities.
In turn, Bush raised his concerns that board members, particularly at the airport, had been criticised and claimed the auditor was not always right as he did not do his research properly. The opposition leader said that directors were often serving as volunteers but unfounded allegations were made against them and they were not given a chance to defend themselves.
He slammed the OAG for not interviewing all the people involved before issuing reports that point the finger and criticise.
“If youlook at the reports, the people are going to think there is no control when there is,” Bush said after questioning witnesses about the air ambulance services. However, he stressed that the PAC needed to have someone from the boards present when they addressed the OAG’s reports on statutory authorities and government companies.
“We have human rights in this country and this committee cannot do its work and clear the air on matters when people are not interviewed and only one side is given by the audit office,” he said.
He said the auditor wrote things about people without finding out the facts. “We can’t continue in a democratic country not adhering to human rights and writing something about somebody without given them chance to give their side of the story,” he said.
It was not clear why the PAC had not called any of the board members, and the team from Cayman Airways was the only group of witnesses from a statutory authority or government company that came with the board chair.
Bush, who has in the past referred to the auditor general as "a hit man", was on the attack through much of the hearings and said PAC was supposed to manage the audit office and it could not be allowed to carry on as it had. “You need to understand you can’t run ramshackle over everybody,” he told the team from the OAG.
Swarbrick defended his work, however, and pointed out that the PAC had oversight of the office but anything more would be political interference in the work of his office, which is meant to be an independent watchdog on public spending. He said the office followed best practice when compiling the reports and everyone was given a chance to submit comments on the reports.
Bush continued his criticism off the office and said the PAC needed to find the factual basis for Swarbrick’s findings and so needed the board members because the civil servants and authority employees could not answer all the questions, and he demanded proof of the allegations made in the reports.
Shouting at the new PAC chair, Roy McTaggart, Bush told him that while he may take the findings of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) at face value, he (Bush) was not prepared to take everything Swarbrick said "as Bible”.
“People’s names have been besmirched and I want to see proof,” he said, accusing the auditor of making assumptions and that the good governance and transparency everyone wanted was one sided.
“Why must I come here and agree to this?” he demanded.
Travel raises contention ahead of premier’s next trip
(CNS): Having recently returned from a trip to Gibraltar, Jersey and the UK, the country’s premier is taking another overseas trip this weekend, this time to Miami to represent the Cayman Islands at the 2013 KPMG Island Infrastructure Summit. Alden McLaughlin will be a panellist at a discussion on Monday regarding infrastructure projects in the islands but is expected to fly back to Cayman later that day to continue budget preparations. Travel became a contentious issue during the previous administration, with criticisms over the number of trips then premier McKeeva Bush and other UDP ministers took when in office. Now the opposition leader, Bush has described the new government as “hypocritical”.
He pointed out that he was berated for travelling and criticised heavily by the opposition and others who have “turned 360 degrees” now that they are in government.
“When I was premier, I had many many subject matters that at the time I had to travel to conduct business for,” he said. “Today, there are four ministers doing what 'me one' had to do … not to mention the duties and responsibilities as the premier of the country,” he said, as he pointed to the role of financial services now held by Wayne Panton, planning now held by Kurt Tibbetts, tourism held by Deputy Premier Moses Kirkconnell, and finance held by Marco Archer.
He said covering those subject matters required his attendance at meeting, forums and negotiations, from Washington to Europe, in efforts to preserve relationships, bring new business to the island and get Cayman in good standing with the G20 and the OECD, keep the credit rating, and protect the financial services sector.
“I was criticised severely by the PPM and the now premier, Alden McLaughlin. It’s more than hypocritical, to say the least, the extent that they went to berate and complain and point fingers, making mountains out of mole hills. Today, with just four months in office, he and his team is already 'on the road' quite a bit,” Bush added
Less critical of the actual travel, however, he gave the premier the benefit of the doubt, adding that he could be doing what he said he would during the campaign, which was to hit the ground running.
“I wish him luck and I hope and pray he is successful in hitting the ground running, and not running the people into the ground!” Bush added, saying he was keen to put politics aside because if the country is to succeed, the premier and ministers must travel to be at meetings and negotiate on our behalf.
“In so doing, they will need protocol and transport services no matter how long it takes for a meeting to begin and end. They should, as the premier of the Cayman Islands, have personal security and they must be able to travel in a situation where they can read or study their papers, discuss the matter with their colleagues and be ready physically and mentally able,” he said, explaining that meetings would sometimes come after a three to ten hour flight.
These comments by the opposition leader come just days after the announcement that the RCIPS Financial Crimes Unit has opened another investigation into the former premier, this time over the alleged misuse of limousine services in the US, accusations that Bush has denied.
Defending the travel, he said that the country’s leaders needed to do it and needed protocol support and to think otherwise was putting down the government, the country and all the people.
“The premier must travel and have the necessary convenience and services to try and be successful for the country. He is the premier of the Cayman Islands, one of the largest financial and international business centres of the world,” Bush added.
Nevertheless, the issue of travel has already dogged thisadministration after just four months, despite the introduction of a stricter travel policy, which will see politicians and civil servants flying economy-plus rather than business class, and delegations cut to the wire. On this trip McLaughlin is taking only one member of staff from his office, Kenneth Bryan, his political assistant.
CNS submitted questions to the premier regarding some of the questions that have been raised about his and his government’s travel following the significant controversy over Education Minister Tara Rivers’ extended trip to the CPA in South Africa, and we are awaiting a response.
With the exception of the situation concerning Rivers, however, since taking office the new government has been transparent about who is travelling where and why and has also proactively revealed the costs to the public purse.
On this trip, the premier will only be away for two days and stay just one night in a hotel. According to a release from his office, the conference will explore how island economies can use alternative financing models, such as public private partnerships, to work with the private sector to deliver innovation and efficiencies in asset management, and achieve accelerated infrastructure development that drives economic growth. In light of the plans for the cruise port, the conference has some direct relevance for the CIG
McLaughlin will be on a panel Monday with Bermuda Premier Craig Cannonier; Ryan Pinder, the minister of financial services, trade and industry in The Bahamas; and Dennis Richardson, Sint Maarten’s justice minister.
Realities of public accounts bemuse new members
(CNS): The newly elected back-bench members of government serving on the Public Accounts Committee got to grips with the reality of what the auditor general described as the “abysmal state” of some government accounts during the first open hearing of the committee Thursday. Chair Roy McTaggart, along with members Winston Connolly and Joey Hew, all new politicians, were clearly bemused by how it was that year after year government entities were submitting sub-standard accounts to the auditor general and yet there had been no consequences or sanctions of any kind.
“How have people been allowed to submit poor accounts year after year?” asked Winston Connolly, the newly elected George Town C4C member, now sitting on the government benches. “Why is there nothing in the system to correct poor behaviour and, well, incompetence? Who is it in government that makes these decisions?”
Despite the fact that most statutory authorities and government companies (SAGCs) have caught up in terms of submitting something to the Office of the Auditor General by the statutory deadline each year, PAC was informed that the quality is still a major problem.Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick and his team, who were sitting with the PAC, as is customary, indicated that for the core government ministries and portfolios, the situation was even worse.
Concentrating on the SAGCs, the members questioned the accountant general and her team as well as Swarbrick about the general state of affairs before beginning the second day of witnesses relating to the auditor’s recent report on the on-going problems with public authority accounts.
For several years most government entities failed to submit anything after Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 and following the introduction of the Public Management and Finance Law (PMFL), which requires that accounts meet international standards and appeared to be too taxing for the government's bean counters. Some eight years later, the backlog has largely been addressed and most authorities are meeting the auditor general’s deadline. But the problem now is that many of the accounts submitted to the public audit office are of such poor quality that the team is struggling to audit them.
As a former auditor, a qualified financial lawyer and a successful businessman, McTaggart, Connolly and Hew struggled to understand how it had happened, and despite the well-publicised details in the press over the last five years about the problems, they did not seem to realise the magnitude of the problem until Thursday.
PAC members pressed the audit team and Accountant General Debra Welcome, whose office’s main function is to consolidate government’s accounts into an annual entire public sector financial report, but has not been able to produce one for almost a decade. She said that chief officers are responsible for their departments.
Despite the massive focus on the issue and the money spent on external help and experts, the problem with quality continues.
Swarbrick said that while the deputy governor, in partnership with the financial secretary, had done much to drive government entities towards submitting their accounts on time, what they submit still falls far short in too many cases of the expected standard. He pointed out that it was critical for government to take responsibility for producing reliable and transparent accounts, not just for his office but so it knows what is being spent by whom and why, as it is public money.
“Government needs to reassure itself the information it submits is good and not wait for us to say it is or isn’t. It needs to be able to rely on this information,” Swarbrick said.
The new PAC members failed to understand how government was not able to catch and prevent the submission of substandard information.
The auditor general said that when he produces his report later this year on what was submitted for the year end 2012/13, there would be more details release, but he flagged the fact that there were still challenges among SAGCs and core government still had a long way to go.
“The issue of leadership is still fundamental to this,” Swarbrick said. Acknowledging the work of the deputy governor, he said in his opinion there was still a role for someone to have clear and direct responsibility for the quality, accuracy, timeliness and transparency of government’s accounts.
Port outlook remains poor
(CNS): Officials from the Cayman Islands Port Authority said there is not much more they can do to address the major losses other than increase cargo fees after several years of the board ignoring warnings from the management team about the serious fall in revenue. James Parsons, the financial controller at the authority, said that despite his warnings, in the last two years the directors had invited him to just one board meeting. He explained this was to present a special report from KPMG that had offered some suggestions about how the port could turn around its losses. However, he was given only 15 minutes and when he got there, they cut that to ten.
Speaking before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday, Parsons spelt out the dire situation at the port as the MLAs made enquiries regarding the concerns raised by the Office of the Auditor General in his report The Financial and Performance Reporting of Statutory Authorities and Government Companies for the year ending June 2011, which was published this June. Alastair Swarbrick’s team had found a catalogue of problems at the authority, not least the fact that the port was running at a significant loss.
Parsons revealed that the port’s income from cargo was down some 50% since the economic slump began to bite around 2009, and with cruise revenue also falling, the authority was no longer a viable concern. Governmentis not officially injecting cash into the port, as it does with Cayman Airways and the Turtle Farm, but because the port owes government for several years of its costly annual insurance cover, it is indirectly subsidising the authority to the tune of over $3.5 million.
As a result of the labour intensive nature of the port and the need for expensive security, Parsons said the management had cut staff down to its bare minimum, but any more would risk the safety and efficiency of operations.
“There is not a whole lot more we can do,” he said. With warnings going unheeded and what Parsons said was something in the region of a million dollars spent by the board on consultant and legal fees over the last few years, things were bad.
Attempts to increase fees to the tender operators was rejected by the board just weeks after the increase was passed into the regulations. Parsons explained that when the tender owners tried to push the increase on to the cruise lines, the FCCA complained because it had an agreement with the Cayman government not to put fees up as part of its contribution to the construction of the Royal Watler pier. Parsons said the only place left was an increase in cargo operation fees.
Pressed by the committee about what the board had done about the warnings, Parsons implied that no one had listened or heeded his warnings that action needed to be taken. However, Parsons and Port Director Paul Hurlston said that they had begun discussions with the new board about a gradual phasing of fee increases for cargo operations because, both men told the committee, based on the recommendations by KPMG there was little else to be done.
Several other issues were discussed by the committee, including the revelations in the report that former premier McKeeva Bush had directed the hiring of two men to oversee and report on issues relating to the Sandbar, which had caused considerable controversy because politicians should not be involved in hiring staff.
However, Hurlston said that over the years he had served at the port, he was aware of politicians directing certain people be hired at the port on many occasions. As director, he had been told several times to hire certain people for certain things who didn’t necessarily answer to him.
Forced to discuss this issue with McKeeva Bush sitting on PAC, even though it was Bush in his role the tourism minister who had made the directive, Hurston was reluctant to elaborate and the PAC government members were also reticent about the issue. It was established, however, that the two men never reported to either the director or the board.
Bush defended the hiring and told PAC that had the auditor general asked around, he would have learned that the men were reporting to the ministry every month. He said he didn’t hire them but the ministry did, and what was more, they had addressed the problems at the Sandbar of boats not following the rules and things had improved.
Making a point about the newly elected members of the Legislative Assembly, Bush said, “If people weren’t paying attention to this country until recently,” they would not be aware of the headaches at the Sandbar. “We spent every month dealing with trouble at Sandbar and we asked for something to be done but no one could get anything done,” the former premier and current opposition leader said.
Although a member of the committee, Bush became a witnesses as he was the centre of the issues in the report — a problem that had been pointed out by the former PAC chair, Ezzard Miller, who had said that the committee risked being dysfunctional, given how frequently the former finance minister would be implicated in the work of the committee.
Regardless of the unusual situation, Bush took the opportunity to explain himself and the action taken in his role as tourism minister in the previous UDP administration 2001-2005. He said a decision was made to hire people to address the Sandbar problems following complaints from the cruise industry about what was happening at the attraction, from damaged boats and overcrowding to other boats damaging the Sandbar itself.
“At one point we had some boats capsize as they were overloaded with people,” he said, adding that nothing he could do seemed to prevail. “So we came up with idea to have trustworthy people keep an eye on it.” He said that had helped and further plans were developed to control the area before Hurricane Ivan in September 2004 derailed them.
The two men were let go during 2005-09 “for political reasons”, Bush stated . However,the trouble started again, so when he returned to the tourism ministry in 2009, the ministry directed that the men were re-hired. “We had monthly reports and the board had agreed to the decision,” he said. “Today the situation is much better … systems were put in place where boats anchor away off from the Sandbar.”
He justified the $1,000 paid per month to each of the men, saying, “You think you get stuff done for nothing? We expect people to come work for us for nothing but government charges people for what they do.”
He said the men, who were experienced trustworthy people, were not overpaid and the situation improved.
“They call it interference, but it was good interference; it was something done by me; it was agreed, and by the looks of it, you should all be hiring a whole lot more people as Caymanians are out of work,” he added directly to the government PAC members.
It was established, however, that no one on the board or the management at the port had seen the reports or knew what the two men were doing, even though the money, which amounted to over $90,000, was being paid from the cash-strapped government company.
Government building still 35% empty
(CNS): Government is still struggling to make the most out of its new office accommodation building (GOAB) as a result of the reluctance by some departments and agencies to move there and because of the costs involved in adapting the space to meet the needs of new public sector tenants. With an occupancy rate of around 65%, officials said the problems in filling the space are complex; in some cases the space is there as a result of downsizing of departments rather than the growth that had been anticipated when the building was first envisioned, but in others the space is not fit for purpose for newly proposed tenants. The issue was raised during Wednesday’s Public Accounts Committee meeting.
Members asked Deputy Governor Franz Manderson and Alan Jones, chief officer in the ministry with responsibility for the government office accommodation building, whether there had been any improvements in occupancy rates since the auditor general made his report on major public projects using the GOAB as one of his case studies. In that report Alastair Swarbrick had reported that the building was only 60% full.
While officials revealed there had been a marginal improvement to about 65%, Manderson described the issue of getting public authorities in there as ‘tough decisions’, which, he said, the government was continuing to make to have tenants come in. He said that the Department of Tourism was about to make the move but there were issues preventing the relocation of some government agencies, many of which remain scattered around in various commercial office buildings.
Alan Jones explained the problems with occupancy. He said that when the building was designed, chief officers were looking at future growth as it was important to build a building that would take into account potential staff numbers. However, in many cases the entities that had moved in are, in fact, smaller than had been expected due to cuts, so they now have excess space. But these are bits of space in department which are not big enough necessarily to accommodate a full public authority.
Around a quarter of the original tenants had pulled out, such as the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, which was advised by international regulators not to share accommodation with government as because of the need for independence. Jones explained that where this had happened, the space that had been designed was not necessarily appropriate for other entities. In order to move new public sector tenants into the building, which has already cut costs for those in there, there will need to be physical changes made.
He also noted that it was “all too easy” for public authorities to make a case for not moving into the building.
“Strong efforts are being made to bring in other entities but this is not helped with government's financial position, as changing fitted out space is expensive and money is tight,” he said, adding that it was still government’s intention to press ahead with getting the building fully occupied as soon as possible.
During the PAC proceedings both Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush and the UDP opposition MLA Capt Eugene Ebanks queried why, when he was the main critic of the empty space, the auditor general had his office in Anderson Square, triggering a number of direct criticisms of Swarbrick from Bush during the course of the meeting.
The auditor pointed out that, because the Office of the Auditor General had to be independent from government, it was not appropriate for his physical office to be in the central government location.
“It would be against best practice and the practices of independent audit for my office to be in the same building as the entities we audit,” he said, adding that nowhere in the developedworld would a public auditor share an office with the government. He said the possibility of his office sharing with the information commissioner and the complaints commissioner, who are also independent entities, to cut costs was being discussed. But he emphasised that the OAG could not share space with core government.
Bush disagreed and said his office was exactly the department to be pushed in a back office somewhere as the public didn’t need to visit, a point Swarbrick disagreed with. He said that quite to the contrary, members of the public do come and also report things to him — something that would be far less likely to happen if the office was in the GOAB at the heart of government.
Procurement office in works
(CNS): The deputy governor has said a new government department is being created to address issues relating to major public capital projects and procurement, based on recommendations made by the auditor general in his report about how government currently manages these projects and the public cash spent on them. Franz Manderson told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Wednesday that this new government entity will address most of the problems identified and fulfill the auditor’s recommendations. Some $350,000 has been budgeted for the office, which will deal with everything from developing new laws to establishing business cases for public projects.
Answering questions from the PAC about a report by Alsastair Swarbrick which had raised numerous concerns over how government has, until now, managed major projects and procurement, Manderson explained the creation of the new office. The Office of the Auditor General (OAG), which used the tendering process for the high schools and the entire Government Administration Building Project as case studies for its report, found significant weaknesses with leadership and oversight. In response, the deputy governor said a working group had been established to examine the findings and address the recommendations.
That work, Manderson said, was now almost complete, and after a report had been submitted to Cabinet about addressing procurement weaknesses, he had been given the go-ahead to establish the new Central Procurement Office (CPO) and begin the recruitment process for a procurement director.
The office will be responsible for standards, procedures and have oversight of the procurement process. It will also begin work on drafting new legislation, removing procurement from the existing Public Management and Finance Law and creating a new and separate law.
The deputy governor told the PAC that the future goal in managing projects would be to get things right from the start, and it will be this office that will establish the business case for any project before it goes to tender.
The office will also include the Central Tenders Committee, which will be renamed the Procurement Committee. It will be have a member of the private sector as its chair but government and the opposition will both be asked to make appointments as well as the deputy governor’s office. One member of the Standards in Public Life Committee will also sit on the procurement board. Manderson explained that it will be mandatory for any government project of $250,000 or more to be handled by the new committee.
Following the PAC meeting, Peter Gough, the strategic advisor to the deputy governor, outlined the plans for the office in an email to CNS. He said that once created, the CPO will be responsible for “establishing procurement laws and regulations, policies and procedures, developing and maintaining standard government procurement documentation, procurement oversight, carrying out some centralized procurement, advising government entities on procurement and training of employees involved in procurement.”
Cabinet has allocated funds for the new post of director of the central procurement office in the 2013/14 Budget. The CPO will employ three people with an annual budget of about $350,000, and Gough said the director would be the first appointment.
“A draft Job Description has been developed for the Director of Central Procurement and once the grade has been evaluated it will be advertised,” Gough confirmed.
From developing and maintaining laws, regulations, policies and procedures for procurement to be used by all government entities to establishing the business case templates, as well as advising on and approving procurement strategies on significant projects starting from $50,000, the office will be expected to train all government employees who are or will be involved in procurement.
The office will also stick with public projects as they roll out and undertake post implementation reviews to ensure that they have achieved the objectives of the business case and are within financial and time limits.
PAC set to review reports
(CNS): Sparks could be flying in the Legislative Assembly today when the new Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meets for the first time in public to call witnesses and discuss two controversial reports by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG). With former premier McKeeva Bush sitting on the committee that scrutinizes the reports, one of which criticises his administration, especially his alleged direct interference in issues outside of the political realm, there could be some uncomfortable moments for the auditor and others on the committee. Roy McTaggart will chair the meeting, but after he recently sat at the government top table as a temporary cabinet minister, Bush was among those who claimed this is now a conflict, since ministers should not sit on PAC.
The committee is expected to review two reports by Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick and his team that raised a number of controversies, one that examined how government manages major capital projects, and the second was a specific report on some of the potential anomalies surrounding the air ambulance service.
Proceedings are open to the public and scheduled to begin at 10am.
Dart and CIG still talking
(CNS): The new government remains locked in talks with the islands’ biggest developer several weeks after Planning Minister Kurt Tibbetts said he hoped to be able to release information to the public about the state of the controversial negotiations. In a short response to CNS questions about the state of the talks with the Dart Group, Cayman officials indicated Monday that until there was some agreement between the two parties, there was little that the administration was able to say. The PPM government has made it clear it has concerns about the lack of a through route now that a section of the West Bay Road has been closed, and that it could not accept the 50% tax gift contained in the agreement signed in December 2011.
Tibbetts told the party’s national council in early August that he would have news shortly about the talks. He also said that the part of the agreement which gives Dart a rebate on all accommodation taxes for ten years on properties it already owns, acquires or renovates for the next three decades was unacceptable. But more than a month later there is still no indication of where the talks are following the break-down just ahead of the elections in May.
“Discussions between government and Dart are ongoing and there is an understanding that until discussions are at a mutually satisfactory point, there is little more that can be said publicly at this juncture,” the premier’s press secretary stated on Monday. “Government and Dart want the best outcome for the people of the Cayman Islands and are working toward that end,” the official added.
While the second phase of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway officially opened on Monday and work continues on the proposed new resort on the site of the former Courtyard Marriott, the details of the ongoing negotiations and whether or not the government will be able to re-balance the deal with better value for the public purse remains unclear.
The PPM government has made it a campaign promise to revisit the deal and that it would not agree to the relocation of the landfill, which was the second part of the overall proposed investment plan known as the ForCayman Investment Alliance. While, Osbourne Bodden, the minister with responsibility for the landfill, has made it clear the dump must be addressed on site, in its recent report on its first 99 days in office the PPM administration said it had entered into discussions with Dart about Grand Cayman’s ever growing dump and the best solutions for waste management at the existing site.
McLaughlin compares notes with Jersey counterparts
(CNS): The new premier and leader of the PPM, Alden McLaughlin, said his trip to Jersey to compare notes on how that crown dependency has remained debt free was very worthwhile. With travel by leaders a touchy subject with the electorate at present, McLaughlin, accompanied by Financial Services Minister Wayne Panton and backbencher Roy McTaggart, had added the Jersey visit on to his trip to Gibraltar and London for Joint Ministerial Council meetings with other overseas territories ahead of the main meeting in London in November. “Cayman, like Jersey, is a top-tier Financial Services Centre and we face common challenges and threats," the premier said on his return.
“We are looking at ways to work more closely together to deal with the issues of navigating the difficult waters of being international Financial Centres,” he added.
McLaughlin is not the first premier to visit the island; McKeeva Bush, as premier at the time, also went on a fact finding mission to the island in 2011 to discuss their public management and finance law and accounting procedures.
While in Jersey, thelatest Cayman delegation also reviewed that government’s procurement process, as the localgovernment is still in the process of implementing new procurement legislation. The politicians also discussed the topical issue of immigration.
“Immigration, for them, as for Cayman, is a key issue and concern,” McLaughlin added.
High on the list of items to discuss was budgeting. Jersey’s government sits for three-year terms and recently introduced the concept of a budget that covers the full three years.
“We looked at how that benefits planning and reduces time and energy instead of every year having to go through the full budgeting process,” he said. “It is something to consider.”
The idea for the meeting came in June when the premier met with Jersey Chief Minister Ian Gorst and Minister for Treasury and Resources Sen. Philip Ozouf. Prior to that, Minister Ozouf had been in the Cayman Islands in May as part of the UN Elections Observers Mission.
“He had a chance to see what Cayman did and he was hugely impressed by the state of Cayman’s financial industry,” said McLaughlin. “We share the vision with Jersey being recognised internationally as a high quality, properly regulated jurisdiction that we are. The trip was a very useful exercise and I look forward to hosting Jersey for a reciprocal visit next year,” he added.
Jersey’s parliament is the States of Jersey, which consists of 51 elected members, far more than the 18 that comprise Cayman’s Legislative Assembly. The island is home to almost 100,000 people on a land mass of 45 square miles and is a leading offshore centre and one of the UK’s crown dependencies.