Health ministry gets its first unqualified audit
(CNS): The Ministry of Health and Culture was is the latest government entity to brag about receiving an unqualified audit on its 12/13 accounts. Public auditors passed the ministry’s 12/13 accounts without comment — the first time the it has ever received an unqualified audit opinion. As government’s bean counters turn their attention to submitting the 14/15 accounts to the Office of the Auditor General, Deputy Governor Franz Manderson said he was very encouraged that the number of agencies receiving unqualified passes continued to grow.
“I am confident that as we receive more reports from the auditor general’s office we’ll see more unqualified results being achieved across the Cayman Islands Government.,” Manderson said. “I am also confident that for the first time since the introduction of the Public Management and Finance Law (PMFL), no civil service entity will receive a disclaimer or adverse opinion in respect of their 12/13 accounts.”
Chief Officer Jennifer Ahearn praised the chief financial officer (CFO) in the ministry, Nellie Pouchie, for “her hard work and the dedication that was required to achieve this unqualified result”.
Having started with some ten areas that could have led to a qualification, Pouchie was said to have worked closely with the OAG to address each one of them so that the ministry was able to final supply a credible account for how it has spent taxpayers’ money.
Premier and Minister of Health Alden McLaughlin also praised the team for the work that it had done to meet professional standards and to provide value for money to the people of the Cayman Islands.
Category: Government Finance, Politics
Well done Nellie, I know this must have involved a lot of work on your part. I’m glad you were mentioned and the politicians did not take all the credit as without your hard work, this would likely not have been achieved.
This is really great news and I must say the Kool-Aid I just drank was really delicious, although it had a somewhat bitter aftertaste. Why do you think that was?
Well done Mr. Premier. This is what we can expect to receive when we put qualified people like Roy MCTAGGART in these positions. Maybe Roy can help the other government departments catch up too. We need to know the true financial position of our country
Well said. I trust a report is being worked on for the Law School. It seems to go un-noticed each year. A report and good leadership is pass due!
Where in this article does it make mention of Roy McTaggart having anything to do with this? I see Nellie Pouchie being praised.
This sounds much like the debate between the PPM and UDP as to who should get credit for the surplus.
The success of that financial year has nothing to do with Roy McTaggart (who was only elected at the end) and very little to do with Nellie Pouchie. The person who really deserves the credit is the Jamaican who was CFO at the time which they have now shifted to clean up the worst Ministry in the Government.
It is so nice for everyone to show up and smile at the end and for Ezzard and Bernie and company to spew about how it should only be Caymanians in these positions. However, the Government’s dirty little secret is that most of these improved results are due to foreigners coming in and cleaning up the books while the Caymanians get taken to press conferences and get praised for the results.
If any of you really want to check this, FOI the names and nationalities of all CFOs in the Government, which agency they were in charge of for what period and what the result of their audits were. Come on man, this is getting from bad to worse with people running in for the credit but never wanting to be accountable for the crap.
This is quite true 5:10…up to a point. Ms Pouchie does indeed deserve credit for what she has done since taking over. But the fact of the matter is that when the CFO positions were created and in the years that followed, the cry went up (reasonably enough) “only Caymanians should get the job”. The problem was that the only Caymanians available were either very young and inexperienced or had been let go from the private sector (or both) or elderly Caymanians seeking to ease out their working days by doing the accounts the way they had always done them and not the way the government system required. Chaos and unqualified audits followed. The one non Caymanian (who was very competent) was soon snapped up and promoted into another position. Now, better qualified CFOs, some non Caymanian and some, happily, Caymanian are making real progress and sorting out the accounts and ALL of them deserve to be encouraged. Your comments about Ezzard n’ Bernie (?Berezzard?) are correct.
It is refreshing to read a positive article for a change.
Well done.
This is really great news. I am so very proud of the huge improvements being made in the civil service. I remember not too long ago the majority of accounts were receiving an adverse or disclaimer opinion. Amazing achievement