PAC to tackle auditor’s school report

Clifton Hunter High School, Grand Cayman

(CNS): Members of the Public Accounts Committee will be meeting at the Legislative Assembly this morning to examine the findings of the auditor general’s report on the government schools projects. The report, which was released in July, pointed to a catalogue of issues with both the completion of the Clifton Hunter High School and the expansions to a number of primary schools. Among the litany of issues raised by the outgoing auditor general, Alastair Swarbrick, the former education minister, Rolston Anglin, was accused of interfering in the procurement processes and management of both the secondary and primary schools projects.

Swarbrick had also identified a loss of some $25 million to the public purse and a lack of transparency as well as numerous problems that have plagued public projects. He found that, once again, taxpayers’ money had been wasted due to a lack of proper management and inappropriate interference.

“Government has spent far more than it should have and got far less than it wanted than when it originally decided to build the new high schools and additional classrooms at the primary schools,” Swarbrick stated.

While the PAC is expected to call education ministry civil servants as witnesses during the public hearing on Thursday, it is not clear if Anglin will be called. Having lost the West Bay seat he had held for 12 years in the 2013 election, the former education minister has stepped away from the political arena.

The public hearing is scheduled to start at 9:30am Thursday at the Legislative Assembly in George Town.

Ex-minister accused of meddling in procurement