Auditor general resigns for OECD job
Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick
(CNS): Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick has resigned from his post as the watchdog of government finances after just over five years in office, having accepted a job as a senior policy adviser at the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France. As controversy mounts over the delay in the release of the National Building Fund report, the governor’s office released the news that Swarbrick would be moving on. He will remain in post until the end of October, officials said.
Governor Helen Kilpatrick said she had “reluctantly accepted the resignation”, underscoring her support for the independent auditor who, like his predecessor, has faced considerable scorn, derision and attacks from former premier McKeeva Bush and is likely to face more over the next week when the Nation Building Fund report is released.
“Swarbrick has served the Cayman Islands with professionalism and integrity since his appointment in 2010,” Kilpatrick said. “During this period, the work of the auditor general and his office has helped the civil service and other government entities to deliver major improvements in financial reporting,” she added, as she thanked him and wished him well.
During his time in office Swarbrick has faced public criticisms from the now opposition leader and battles over some of his audits, as he tried to wrestle with the poor governance, lack of proper processes and systems in place, and help government departments meet their lawful obligations to produce meaningful and timely accounts. Nevertheless, Swarbrick said he had enjoyed the job.
“I have had some great experiences as the auditor general and worked with some excellent and dedicated people across the public service,” he said in the release. “At times there have been challenges, and no doubt there will continue to be many more for my successor, but hopefully I leave behind an office that is better placed to deal with them, which can support and encourage the public service to continuously improve.”
Thanking the public servants who have supported the Office of the Auditor General in the sometimes difficult work that it does, he also thanked the people of the Cayman Islands and expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to serve.
The governor has reportedly began the process to recruit a successor, who officials said would be selected through open competition. The deputy auditor is expected to be acting auditor general until a selection is confirmed.
Category: Government oversight, Politics
SOON COME TO 09:18
I agree with you 100% !!!!!!
Imagine when he airs all the dirty laundry to the OECD, I wonder how many more black lists we will be on.
Thank you Mr Swarbrick for all you have done (and tried to do) for the benefit of Cayman and its people and value for money on the taxes we pay. You have always been bluntly against a background of such adversity and bureaucracy. You will be sorely missed and I sincerely hope your replacement will be able to do an equally brilliant job.
Job advert for the replacement:
“You will be able to pick any part of government activity, really any, and with ease uncover corruption, nepotism, cronyism and incompetence. Like shooting fish in a barrel it is. And then you can put your findings in a well reasoned report. After that it will be published. The politicians will immediately deny everything. And absolutely nothing will happen. You contract will end either when you are harassed out of the country or when you find a job which is not completely pointless.”
A Canadian? You cannot be serious. They put cheese on their potato chips. And gravy. Gravy sir!
And everyone knows they are basically Americans with a funny accent.
Or is it Americans are Canadians with a funny accent.
@Poutain – YUM.
Poutine!
Be careful throwing that word around Quebecois.
Somehow I think this means Cayman will be screwed even more from his new position!
cayman was lucky to have their last two ag’s…..pity the worthless caymanian politicians never take on the recommendations of the many reports….or take action against the countless cases of corruption/oncompetence that have been exposed…….
legge was right btw!
Thank you Mr. Swarbrick for you services. Nobody should disrespect the man for taking a more prestigious and probably better-paying job.
Anybody heaving a sigh of relief at his leaving should take note that Martin Ruben, the man who did all of the grunt work for the AG’s hard-hitting reports, has not announced his departure.
Good Job & Thank you Mr. Swarbrick. You will succeed at whatever post you move on to as you serve with the same integrity, tenacity & commitment that you did in the Cayman Islands. Time will take care of the persons who played deaf to all that you highlighted whilst they were in power. You have an excellent team on the ground as well and we are thankful for their efforts.
The next AG has big shoes to fill!
As a dedicated, lifetime supporterof the PPM, i sincerely hope they are not holding back the release of the nbf report to cover up either for themselves or mckeewa bush. I have to say this does seem very much to be the case. I hope i am wrong. This is disturbing. The public deserves to know the unfiltered truth folks. However disturbing that truth might be. And the truth WILL and must come to the light eventually. It has to.
Sad day indeed for Cayman- Batman is leaving and the Jokers are in charge of Gotham..now we need Ironman
Hey Alden. Give us that DAMNED REPOORT NOW!!!
Thank you AG- we understand that you could not stay with us forever and that change is the one constant. I know that the posters who smell something wrong just has poor smell and that you are leaving on your terms.
We upgraded when we employed you and I have no doubt that our CPA Governor will upgrade again.
Thank you for your hard work and we wish you and your family God speed.
This can’t be good right now. Somebody should say something soon. It don’t look good., don’t smell good so it can’t too good. Somebody explain Please….
Alden and company getting rid of him now cause they know their turn around the corner. The days of pulling down mckeeva is over, the auditor will now have to actually write on the progressives now. lol
Man getting out of Dodge!!!!! He thought Mckeeva wha bad? Check out this Cayman Brac Mafiya
Seems one Government is as bad as the other. Mac chased Dan Dugay and now Alden and cronies have chased out Alistair.
Seems more to me like the West bay illiterates are chasing him out for exposing more of the udp’s wutlessness.
PPM/UDP Every last one of unnah is “wutless”, from the Speaker on down.
Some people will simply never stop trying to smear the udp’s dirt all over the PPM. can it possibly be any clearer that ALL the XXXX being reported by the auditor general points DIRECTLY at the deplorable udp party included those being pointed at the current speaker of the house???
Thank You, Mr. Swarbrick for exposing the reporting irregularities, misconduct, and fund misappropriations by Cayman’s public officials and private sector partners.
I’ll wait for the Government’s press release following this latest news.
It is imperative that he is replaced by another Brit with no connections to Cayman. Corruption and dodgy deals are so rampant that a local has no chance of signing off on the penetrating allegations and investigations this man managed.
11:38 Why a Brit? Like Swarbrick they’d be in the pocket of the FCO so hardly completely independent. What we need now is someone like Duguay who had no connections to either CIG or the FCO.
You do see how corrupt the mother country is don’t you? Please get off the high-horse. Goodluck to you Mr. Swarbrick, you tried! That’s all I can say.
A thankless job indeed. Thank you for your service Mr. Swarbrick.
This is the most important post in govt.
Without a strong Auditor General, the worst miscreants in the land will be left unfettered to continue bilking the public purse.
And the most thankless.
sad day for cayman……bring back dan dugay!
mckeewa says he would prefer the cayman cowboy.
This will be a big loss for Cayman. It is important that this job is filled by a strong and independent individual. Any attempts to take the power away from the position should be strongly fought.
Thank you Mr. Swarbrick for you unbiased professionalism.
Great place, Organization of Economic Collusion and Defraudment
You scared bro? Guy with all that dirt on cans going to OECD. Cayman gonna clean up one way or another. Ha ha