Cayman presses UK officials for changes to FFR
Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin (right) at the JMC meeting in London, November 2016
(CNS): Cayman’s finance and economic development minister has been pressing UK officials to make changes to the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility, which is now part of the Public Management and Finance Law. Marco Archer, along with Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson and Premier Alden McLaughlin, began the discussions with Foreign and Commonwealth officials in London Tuesday about the need “to streamline the processes of project assessment and delivery”.
The premier also implied that it was creating challenges for projects such as the cruise and cargo dock and the waste-management plan.
The FFR is designed to help keep a tight rein on public finances and it sets out the requirements for major capital projects. The PPM has always said that it supports the FFR and the structured formal process it lays out for carrying out major public projects. But it appears that the government is finding the bureaucracy and time it takes to follow the process burdensome and has asked for clarity in the process.
According to Cayman officials, the FCO has agreed to provide assistance in simplifying the process while maintaining all necessary checks and balances.
Speaking at the main meeting, chaired by the British government’s territories minister, Baroness Anelay, McLaughlin said the PPM administration welcomed the scrutiny and analysis required by the FFR for long-term sustainability but in some instances its requirements delay projects.
McLaughlin said that Cayman had been “trying for 20 years to get a proper cruise berthing facility”. He added, “We have come a long way down the road but there are still major challenges.”
During the discussions about the need for UK support for infrastructure projects, the premier said that Cayman did not need cash but expertise. “It’s not so much that we need grants from the UK, but rather the need is to help us develop the technical expertise needed for developing and managing large infrastructure projects,” he said.
While the FFR created strict guidelines for government’s capital projects and public spending, it also sets out clear restrictions on debt. Since Cayman has now met all the requirements of the FFR and paid down its debt, Finance Minister Archer also discussed the issue of voluntary early re-payment of debt and the impact on the debt servicing ratio specified under the Public Management and Finance Law.
“It has been the remit of the Progressives-led government to annually produce budgets with surpluses while paying down Cayman’s debt. Over the past three years government has reduced debt by $71M to $503M, as at the end of the last fiscal year,” officials added.
Category: Government Finance, Politics
Ah boy. Here comes the PPM spending spree….
its a white boy ,trying in vain to sound like an islander , And Not very good at it either , stick to your cracker English
This is a pathetic ploy to saddle the nation with the debt from the white elephant that is the cruise dock.
Now that’s progressive
We have reduced debt to only $503m (if we ignore the shortfalls forecast on pension obligations, which will hopefully go away somehow) – now we want you to relax the FFR so we can borrow $300m to build a cruise pier…because we are the financially prudent party and you can trust us, really you can. Oh, feel free to re-impose the FFR if the other side get elected next year, because they cant be trusted.
Typical PPM spend spend spend
Nothing was said about borrowing. NOTHING. Seems to me what they are looking for is a streamlined, more cost effective to proceed with projects. The borrowing limits and other restrictions WOULD REMAIN.
Wow, thank heavens for this. I wasn’t sure I was going to sleep tonight just getting worried about this.
Until they act on implementing the corruption law they should not ask for changes in anything.
The FFR serves a purpose: to restrain spending by our cavalier regimes. Don’t loosen the reigns please FCO.
See the price of the schools ordered by the PPM as a vote buying measure.
yeh yeh yeh, just let us spend what we want Mummy. We good boyz really.
I always feel like Cayman is in safe hands with Alden and Marco. No rash, ridiculous decisions. They might even be too cautious sometimes, but overall, although they are not perfect, and which Government is, there is none of the confusion and scandal that rocked the country during Mac’s last stint at the helm. Keep up the good work and keep Cayman moving forward.
Yeh, I know what you mean 11.50. Like the schools right, wasn’t really their fault was it?
Think back to 2005-09 under the PPM. Their decisions along the UDP in recent years are why the FFR was mandated by the UK and implemented into local law.
Alden’s political legacy is the Clfton Hunter High School that costs CI$ 110,000,000.00 to build and CI$ 3,000,000.00 to maintain per yer. Look at the unfinished schools like John Gray school.
If that is putting the country in safe hands and responsible fiscal management I do not want to see reckless and irresponsible bahaviour.
Check out where the costs overuns for the CHHS really occurred.
PPM designed an entire school without dividing classroom walls. Great vision Alden SMFH
Dey good ol boyz know how ti play dumb bout me pension an health care an lok like we es have smooth saling for ar futur. Dats me boyz. At lest wi ave ta best edumacation in da worlds, beter dan Harvard sum say.
What exactly is the benefit of your garbled comment? Is that how you speak all the time?
Its like jazz, try to read the garbled speech that is not written.