CIG aims to contain growing CS
Alden McLaughlin, Cayman Islands Premier
(CNS): The goal to increase efficiency and at least contain the growing cost and size of government is progressing, the premier stated Monday when he outlined around half a dozen areas where work is now underway to merge and cut public sector services and functions. Project Future, as the reform is known, is based on some of the recommendations made by auditors, Ernst and Young, in a controversial review published last October. Six months later, Premier Alden McLaughlin denied that the project had died a death and said work was moving ahead on several proposals.
The premier described the review and recommendations from EY as a “tool kit that government can draw from” as it aims to make the public sector more sustainable. However, he made it clear that the recommendations in the review would not all be accepted in their entirety because the reform of the public sector would be driven by the government’s goals.
He said that while EY had recommended selling the Water Authority, the PPM administration did not support that idea but he said they would be looking at a private sector solution to the sewerage issue. McLaughlin explained government had come up with a short-list of property assets it plans to sell but it won’t be selling the new Government Administration Building. He said the reforms would be different from those recommended in the report as they would “reflect the government’s political direction”.
The premier outlined a number of the reforms that Cabinet has now approved and which business cases were in the works, including the merger of the complaints and information commissioner’s offices (see related story), the merger of the primary schools on Cayman Brac and the creation of a single utilities regulator. The government has also confirmed that it will merge its communication functions, including GIS, the government TV and Radio Cayman, but will not sell off the public sector broadcaster. The premier said Cabinet has also accept the proposal to increase the civil servants retirement age to 65 and to sell off some of government’s property assets.
McLaughlin said what his government was trying to do would have huge implications for the country so it would ensure the reforms were properly implemented, which may mean that things would progress more slowly than people wanted but the process had to be properly managed.
The premier also introduced a new consultant who has been employed as a political appointee on a fixed term twelve month contract to advise government on the reform project and fill in some of the change-management skills gap that the civil service has regarding what will, in some cases, be radical reform.
Kieran Stigant, from the UK, was described as a local government expert. A graduate of Oxford University and a public finance accountant, he has 27 years experience in UK local government, including 12 years as a chief officer. He was also the chief executive at West Sussex County Council, one of the largest local government bodies in the UK, for over three years. Stigant said he would be there to help the implementation teams find Cayman solutions to the challenges of local government cuts.
Check back for more on government’s update on project future this week.
Category: Politics
With all the unemployed Caymanians our beloved horable Premier HIRES yet AGAIN another UK citizen!!
What has Mrs Gov done with all her accounting expertise since arriving here?
Way to go “ALDONE”……Way to go!! COMMON SENSE has left the barn!!
PLZ PUBLISH HIS. SALARY and BENEFITS and CONTRACT DETAILS or we will file an FOI…….2017 plz hurry come!! We got some work to do!
First lets have your name, salary and benefits you receive.
Dear Alden could i please have my votes that i gave the PPM back so i can sell them to the UK Thanks!
What’s the point of retaining consultants to tell you how to fix the public finances if you ignore their advice?
We all know what the problems are, and the solutions. But we also all know that no elected government will ever implement them, because of the civil service voting bloc and the corrupt nature of Caymanian ‘democracy’
Given the zero prospects of his report being implemented, why are we wasting money on Mr Stigant, other than to allow Alden to kick any question of meaningful change into the long grass?
So we have brought in another expert to tell us what we don’t want to hear??
As with the other experts, will this one remain a civil servant for the next 20 years?
Increasing the retirement age should really help with the unemployment issue.
If as McLaughlin states “The goal to increase efficiency and at least contain the growing cost and size of government is progressing, the premier stated Monday”, then why is it that CIG are still hiring for jobs that don’t need doing, promoting Caymanians into positions they are wholly incapable of doing and retaining Caymanians who would by any standards be considered to be incompetent? I see the dilemma of needing to provide jobs for your own people but please do not pretend otherwise.
Yet another Con-sultant who happens to come from the same county in the UK where our dear Governor worked, now employed in a political capacity by the PPM Okeee Dokeee! PPm please publish his salary in the spirit of openness,transparency and “good Gower Nounce” Project Future is starting to sound like Operation Reelect the PPM because we are all idiots. Containing the CS don’t make me laugh when the only thing the CS is retaining and employing is every inept incompetent let go from private sector unemployed cronie, flunkie and lodge bro who supported the PPM. Was it not the PPM who employed over 600 of its disciples to this civil Service Juggernaut the last time they tried to run this place into the ground?? Get real Alden!!!
It is not the consultants who are con merchants. It is the politicians who employ them and continually rewrite reports that are palatable to them and their electorate. In cayman there is always another report in the pipe line and when it is published we are never sure how many rewrites have taken place. What we do know for sure is that rewrites happen.
Alden decoded: in typical ppm style we have done nothing yet and will find every way possible of delaying doing anything and will hire consultants to help us do nothing……..
Classic wonderland stuffbfrom the do nothing ppm