DG disagrees he should be finance leader

Cayman Islands Deputy Governor Franz Manderson

(CNS): The deputy governor disagrees with the auditor general that as head of the civil service he should be the one to lead the much needed improvements in the management of public finances. Franz Manderson told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week that he questioned whether it was really his office’s role to lead improvements in the financial function, given that there is now a finance minister.

Speaking during the PAC hearing last week, the deputy governor said he disagreed that, as head of the civil service, he should take that leadership role, as recommended in the report by the Office of the Auditor General on the management of travel and hospitality.

“I take the view that we have a minister of finance now; we have a financial secretary who is a chief officer, who reports to me … and while I understand I have overall responsibility for the performance of the civil service, I don’t want to be doing things that compromise the work or responsibility of the minister of finance.”

However, Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick said the issue was about the broad professional financial function and the performance of financial officers across government, as well as consistency in how finance is managed and how the public sector deals with government accounts. He said there is not a clear relationship between the broader management and the finance ministry.

Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson answered questions from PAC members about the consistency, competency and standardising accounting across the civil service and the need for some kind of accounting manual to create a common method of doing things. He said that the committee, which has been reviewing the Public Management and Finance Law, has recommended an accounting manual and this is now imminent.

However, asked about the professional levels in the management of the financial function, Swarbrick said they were still seeing varying degrees of ability.  “We see inconsistency,” he told PAC. “We do see quite a variance.”

In any group, he said, you would see different skill levels and competency and that was the case with the local civil service, with chief financial officers varying broadly in the experience and ability. Some are strategic and understand they are guardians of the public purse, while others are simply processing transactions.

However, the deputy governor said he had swapped staff around and put people in more suitable roles, and with the chief financial officers being held to account things were improving. He said that as more ministries get clean audits, other CFOs are recognizing that they must step up because they don’t want to be the only one to get a qualified audit.

“We have driven CFOs to want to do better,” Manderson stated, adding that he still believed that this financial year would result in clean audits across the board.