KPMG gets $500k job to find way to pay for cruise port
(CNS): The tourism minister has awarded the contract to work out how government can finance its cruise berthing project to local consulting firm KPMG. One in a long line of consultants that have been employed to try to move what is expected to be an extremely costly project forward, the local number crunchers are being paid US$$505,500 to come up with a formula. But whatever KPMG advise may not end up in the hands of a minister as enthusiastic about this project as the current holder of the tourism portfolio.
The announcement regarding the contract award comes just over nine weeks before the general election, which means there are no guarantees that Minister Moses Kirkconnell will still hold the tourism remit when KPMG comes up with a proposed financing model.
Despite the current minister’s continued support for the cruise berthing facility, public opinion is not on his side. The government’s official survey came down three to one against and support for the project remains confined largely to special interests, such as some downtown George Town merchants and tour operators. There are many people in the tourism industry that oppose the project, as well as those who have concerns about the damage to the marine environment and the pressure it could place on local resources.
KPMG was appointed by the Central Tenders Committee after an open tender process by the tourism ministry, and officials said they will provide both commercial financial and legal services. The ministry said they were seeking firms with experience in Design-Build-Finance Maintain (DBFM) — a type of public-private partnership agreement suited to large-scale infrastructure projects.
The ministry’s chief officer, Stran Bodden, said KPMG was a reputable consulting firm with a long-established presence in the Cayman Islands.
“They are the second of the Big Four consulting firms to be appointed to the cruise berthing project and will bring industry insight and strong analytical skills to the commercial, financial and legal aspects of the project’s development. Given their affinity with the Cayman Islands, KPMG understands the strategic context of this project and its importance to the cruise industry as well as our Islands economy. We look forward to working with them and benefitting from their analytical expertise as we move forward with the Berthing Facility negotiations,” the senior civil servant said.
Despite Kirkconnell’s support for the project, progress has been slowed by a number of issues. The massive environmental risks associated with the project have led to the original plans being re-worked, putting the proposed piers further out in order to minimise dredging and hopefully avoid the significant destruction of the George Town Harbour reef system.
Nevertheless, the ministry said it remained “committed to maintaining the forward momentum” on the project .
“The appointment of KPMG will enable the ministry to formalise the details of the best possible framework suited to our specific needs,” said Kirkconnell. “As has been previously stated, our goal is to arrive at a formula that will not only fund construction of the piers, but will ensure that they are owned by the people of the Cayman Islands within a reasonable period of time,” he added.
Category: development, Local News, Politics
Come one, come all toursist, and feast your nose on trash mountain. Truly something you can tell your freinds back home.
Great job I could have built the port with that!!!!
Exactly.
wow! 109 comments….mention money and walahh…..just indicates the state on financial affairs of the average caymanian…ps. we all broke supporting the government who squanders it….
And 5 comments on child abuse.
Thank you to both of you. At least I can say more people are waking up to our harsh reality.
Let’s stop and think. How much is that “Turtle Centre” and other similar facilities costing us every year?
Wouldn’t it be better for us to spend $500K now as a one-off to ensure we, the Cayman taxpayers, will be able to pay for this proposed Port. KPMG’s report should at least tell us how much we can afford to spend on a Port for it to be self-sustaining. This is better option that politicians making up a cost of the facility which changes on a whim.
I prefer the KPMG option compared to moving forward with building a multi-million dollar facility that will become a burden on us all to the tune of millions of dollars every year until kingdom come.
“Measure twice, cut once.”
Where was the public outrage when Mac had to pay a few cool million in penalties for moving from one contractor to another for this same project – and we know why he was switching suppliers! The only reason people are so up in arms about this is because the process has been TRANSPARENT all the way through. I feel a whole lot better knowing that a Big4 firm is handling the number crunching on this project so that we can be confident that the costs have been thoroughly analysed and are accurate. This is definitely the proper way to do things. The public have been crying for at least a decade about wanting a more modern dock.
Totally agree! Not only that, all the reports, data, analysis…. everything belongs to the Country and is available to subsequent governments if they choose to use it. What did we get from the few cool million dollars spent before? Nothing!
I totally disagree! I also believe you are blowing smoke when you say, “The public have been crying for at least a decade about wanting a more modern dock.”
Kirkbot, public has no interest in a cruise dock. Certain and very few interested parties have.
On Netflix I found something that was amazing. The islands name is El Hierro they found a way to use wind turbines to generate their electricity . Of course you all know that wind turbines can’t store electricity like solar powered panels? But while they were explaining about their island ,they expressed that their sea and island is a UNESCO dive site. They are a volcanic island and have no CORAL REEF. Their bottom is black sand like Costa Rica. But they have a lot of fish, stingrays, Manta Rays, Whale Sharks ,etc.
So people who dive in Europe seem to like their island a lot . OH they built a cruise ship dock, population 10,000. It is amazing that 10,000 population don’t have a problem. Yet we have over 1500 impacted people working in Cruise ship business on this Island that says they need the dock. Of course including their families thats somewhere around 6000 people. Yesterday we had over 14000 people , last week Tuesday 19,209, next week 20,307 people will come in. So we have big numbers a couple days per month . But as usual the same people wailing . Get over it a cruise ship facility will be built. There is no other reason other then the Tender business will not make millions after its built.
The tenders could have cost us millions $$ had the one that almost sank last month gone down with tourists on board. That’s exactly the type of scenario the cruise ships don’t want liability for. How many more passengers have to suffer injuries and break legs etc transferring from tender boat to ship in choppy seas? Its not always an easy thing to do especially for seniors. Build the piers already!
Your ignorance regarding alternative energy would be slightly funny if it were not so definitive of your asinine and unfounded outlook. Both wind turbines and PV panels utilize battery banks with charge controllers to store energy. PV panels do not store energy, they gather it just like wind turbines do. The people making the real money, save for some, off of the cruise ship industry are a cabal of Oligarchical, monopolistic and disingenuous blackguards who will be making money off of the backs of those who are already paying a ridiculously exploited and bloated high cost of living regardless of any and all ill conceived notions of a cruise ship pier or not. The supposed idea that it is only because of the interests of the cruise ship tenders retaining their particular portion of that gravy train is a red herring and a tool of deception and misrepresentation which folks such as yourself continue to try to promulgate in the absence of any integrity and/or common sense whatsoever. There are many people who have absolutely no vested interest in the tender operation and are vehemently against the cruise ship pier and it’s inevitable astronomical costs,both financial and environmental, who we will all be saddled with said burden of debt along with the litany of deleterious fiascos and those consequential costs at the hands of the previous governmental maladministration. There is no doubt that the present bunch have done a better job of the process but it is still a myopic, greed induced cluster and an inequitable equation running the show and real transparency is still a for off dream. Go ahead and continue to spout your moronic tripe, the creation of the fiefdom which is the dart empire building exercise, while they may now have fallen silent on the issue as they wait in the wings to swoop in as the vulture capitalists which they most certainly are, are who will benefit from all of this far more than anyone else. They are not stupid and in the absence of their, at least at one time, favoured ‘cohort’ at the head of governmental leadership along with a preference for subterfuge and a surreptitious modus operandi that wing of the propaganda machine has chosen to remain relatively quiet in recent times in regards to this subject matter. God only knows what your real motives are, but I do not for a moment trust them nor you and nor should I nor anyone else. I for one will not be fooled by this. I do not want to see the pier built, but if it is, it will not be for the good of the Cayman Islands and her people, save for those for whom myopic greed is their guiding light and for whom the purposeful ignoring of foresight is a predominant mantra. Permanent moorings, you know like the ones that were bought at the people’s expense and left to rust and rot on the land, may well be a good and viable solution from many perspectives. Go get a dictionary if you have an issue with the verbage above and below. At the end of the day, the decision of yay or nay of the cruise ship piers must and should be placed squarely in the hands of the electorate and absolutely nobody else by way of referendum and the absence of this is indicative of a circumvention of democracy, good governance, transparency and an equitable economy and is also indicative of further exploitation of and maladministration of the Cayman Islands, her people and it’s environment and in that order of importance.
Paragraphs, please. We all learned this in primary school. Whether or not you were using your phone to type it doesn’t matter.
Point taken and accepted as valid. I was in a rush to get on with the rest of my day. I have also had an issue in the past whereupon regardless of whether or not I made the paragraphs it showed up as one block of text if published. Maybe that has now changed. I thank you for the constructive criticism.
Good article, DA WA. Factual and straightforward….. some of the points the pro-dockers seem to omit!
Cha, yeah man, I wonder why that would be eh? This issue deserves and demands a national referendum in order for an equitable and valid decision to be made and the only ones who fear that are the ones with their hands in the country’s cookie jar and under the table..
Wow, you’ve impressed me ! Did you watch the Documentary? Why didn’t you ? When you do I’ll be impressed again. I guess you work with solar power? The expert said the wind turbines could not maintain electricity needs. I didn’t say it he did. The new idea that works wonderfully using a volcano crater to hold water, is pumped up a hill and stored and when needed is sent down the hill through a hydroelectric system to produce the electricity. If it has batteries I assume it doesn’t have enough storage which caused the problem. Obviously there was a problem so the new idea is being used today.
Cruise ship business is not causing a higher cost of living, greedy people are. Electricity costs are too high, water generation is too high, food and drink is too high, etc.
All Caribbean Islands and most areas of the world who have Diving as a tourist attraction also have Cruise ship facilities and use them as Dive sites. I pointed out a new Documentary that shows an island WITH NO CORAL REEFS AND ONLY BLACK VOLCANIC SAND is a UNESCO DIVE SITE and also built a Cruise ship pier and has Loads of Groupers, Stingrays, Manta Rays and even large Whale Sharks.
KPMG will probably conclude US$14 per head from passengers and US$5 per head from tenders with about 2 million passengers that comes up to about US$38 million give or take for bad weather . 10 years should about cover our bill. After that we should own our own Cargo and Cruise Ship Facility.
There are approximately 1500 people who partake in Cruise Sip business which comes up to about 6000 people ( husband, wife and 2 kids ). Why you keep talking about , “(The people making the real money, save for some, off of the cruise ship industry are a cabal of Oligarchical, monopolistic and disingenuous blackguards who will be making money off of the backs of those who are already paying a ridiculously exploited and bloated high cost of living regardless of any and all ill conceived notions of a cruise ship pier or not).” the people is totally insane it sounds like you have issues . It’s not Taxi driver, Bus drivers, Stingray City boat operators, Wedding parties, Turtle Centre, Dolphin Discovery, Dolphin Cove, Hell, Tortuga Rum, Botanic Park, Pedro St. James, Atlantis, Resort Sports, Camana Bay, Kirk Stores, Island Companies, New Pubic Beach vendors ,Royal Palms, Tiki Beach or the New White House in BoddenTown. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out , but there are new companies starting up also.
Our Island voted for a cruise ship Facility ,when Mckeeva was Premier and when Alden . No referendum needed. The only reason that the dock wasn’t built before , was people like you who made excuses about gloom and doom that don’t exist. This dock has been tossed around for 30 years. After 30 years they have still chose the same place George Town ,there’s even a book that was called the TAC ( Technical Advisory committee ).
We are already doing 19-20 thousand cruise ship passengers in a day . The problem is we needed 12 months per year not 6 months per year. Traffic will continue to grow like the traffic which comes from the East , by the way nothing to do with Cruise Ship Passengers. In fact when they come from the East coming through South Church Street 8 AM traffic is almost stopped because of the traffic signal is stopping more often. I would suggest to make Fort Street one way in towards the Town Clock. Get rid of the light, traffic should flow well also with a Traffic Warden to direct crossing the street.
Make Walkers Road and Smith Rd. 3 lanes with Traffic signals to alternate changing red to green and green to red. Morning time ,2 lanes coming from Eastern Districts would have Green lights on, third lane red. Evening time back to normal running.
Change is difficult for some people . Some have it all, some don’t, but now is the time for change ,too long people have been held back . Caymanians are losing their right too Fish, to get Conchs, Lobsters, Groupers, Whelks soon land Crabs. We now have people without enough to eat, no place to live, No jobs. It’s disgusting to see and hear . But Crime is coming and we will see it in your life time. I hope everyone will read this comment and think for the future of our people and understand the dock will be built.
I think you’re full of it, 6:48. What does wind turbines have to do with blowing money for a dock? What difference does the color of their sand make? The island of El Hierro uses wind turbines for generation of electricity. So what? I would like to see our islands use solar energy for power generation too, being that I am definitely interested in protection of our environment.
What does the population of El Hierro have to do with it…….. and how much was the cost per person for building a dock? I sincerely hope we (the citizens of the Cayman Islands) don’t go hundred$ of million$ of dollar$ in debt to make a bunch of greedy people richer.
Forget the dock. We’re doing fine without it. Fix the dump before we’re buried in unending stinking garbage.
Thanks Sam, agreed!
Got to love CNS for posting these comments. Compass not only rejects opinions that don’t suit their perception of reality ( you can see it by the number of comments), but also refuses to fix the voting buttons, which don’t work. They don’t respond to emails either.
I concur, Compass voting buttons do not work. I assume they work for some, but not for all, may be it has to do with location (local vs. off island), or the platform, but I tried it from Mac, Android, Ipad, Iphone- it doesn’t work for me. Compass simply ignores this fact.
Regarding the thumbnail. Jesus couldn’t save himself, protection would be the least of his worries.
Regarding the Thumbnail, I’m pretty sure Jesus would have just walked from the cruise ship to the shore, so would have had no need for piers or tenders!
Is this before or after they nail him to the cross for illegal entry.
I am not in favor of this at all specially just before the election for one and $500,000 in more fees for CONSULTATION . NOo disrespect but that’s how Trump would do. Can’t wait wah. Sorry but I stongly agree to disagree. It’s a disrespect for the people that you don’t listen to, and suppose you don’t get in.This speaks volume. God Bless.
Moses should be paying for this out of his own pocket since he has such an obsession for wasting the country’s money.
Correct as his family will benefit the most along with the “West Indian Man” then they should all put up or shut up. This is pure crookedness when we have so many important things to deal with. Look at the social unrest. Guess when you are in your ivory tower sipping champagne cocktails it is hard to know how the regular person feels or is doing.
If every MLA had to shy away from doing something for the Country that would also benefit a member or members of their family NOTHING would get done. Half of us are related to the other half, and those we aren’t related to we’re connected to by marriage. So what if some of Moses family benefits from the dock. Think of the hundreds of families that will also benefit as well.
You got to be joking. Read what you wrote again and relearn the definition of a Democratic and also Conflicts of Interests.
This is why young Caymanians dont belive in ANY OF YOU. NO TRUE EXAMPLE…greedy like Scarface when clearly there is enough to SHARE!!!
@ 11:23….. Baloney.
These MLAs must be “pre-paying” their private sector salaries in to these firms in anticipation of their ousting. There has been about 4 or 5 recent press releases about new consultant contracts since this Jan 2017. This is the second one from tourism alone I believe…
Yes, one to develop a Latin America strategy and one for the dock. Totally unrelated. Competition is tough out there in the real world. What’s wrong with hiring experts to help the powers that be be more effective getting tourists here? Sometimes you got to spend money to make money.
BUT money cannot buy time…frene-my. YOU WILL LEARN SOMEWAY OR ANOTHER.
This government has made a name for themselves for wasting the country’s money. Shame and disgrace.
Remember 2008/09 oppression Cayman…don’t let them do it to unah again!
STOP ‘woting’ away your power because you lack genuine vision. Lead through your own strengths even when society focuses on your weaknesses. Try to seek Truth ONLY, forget perpesctive and opinion!!
Tell ‘gimme story’ politicians…Nah today, bobo! No bribes or favors…Christmas soon come and you’ll get your hand outs from your messily jobs then!!
Sounds like a lot of experts on this chat. Cayman is so lucky to have so many people that know everything about everything.
Why don’t you get on the silver wings and fly off to greener pastures and leave us alone.
How do KPMG sleep at night? Taking this money is akin to taking candy from a baby!
They have golden beds with pillows full of Dodo feathers. Probably quite comfortably. Don’t be pissed at them, they appear to have made the cheapest bid..
I am impressed by the sheer number of responses. Politicians take note, people are fed up with the usual consultants being paid exorbitant sums to “absolve” the politicians of any responsibility for the consequences. Pontius Pilate washed his hands afterwards, not before the deed!!!
the thing will never be built, way too many conflicted interests no matter who’s in power and the major retailers/wholesalers who have most to win/lose are too strongly connected politically to be rolled over easily which means the CIG can never cut a deal with carnival/royal caribbean or any other operator for financing because the lines would need the rights to retail, etc, etc, etc….and then of course there’s the ‘small’ matters of:
Environmental impacts
Mother UK who likely won’t let GOVT spend a $ on it anyhow
Sensible objective observations – why build a port that can’t be used for 3 months of nor’westers anyhow?!
true understanding of the benefits to cayman of having a port….the public just don’t buy it, that ship has sailed, people are liking the focus on stay-over with the new hotels, etc
lets move on and sort really important stuff, like ooooh…i don’t know….Education.
At $500 an hour that is 25 weeks of KPMG’s time. Nice work if you can get it. Car City, up the new BMW orders.
So how many rum cake outlets will be operating at the end of these piers?.
And once again, the only winner is the consultaning firm. More tax payers money down the drain!!
How about a re-titling to “KPMG retained to make Cayman actually about Caymanians”
Maybe it can be part-funded by the imposition of duty on watches?
I wonder who needs to be watched? LOL.
We just aren’t able to get what we need out of cruise tourism unless we get a dock. Hours are lost with tenders and half the guest don’t get off the ships. Other ports get twice as much business essential than Cayman does.
12.22 please put up your proof or shut up…easy to just write stuff with no back up
2:44 read the PWC report, it’s all been researched and documented. We need the port to keep Caymanian jobs.
PWC were replaced by KPMG why do you think that is?
Read Paul Hurlston’s comments for the insider perspective and facts.
3.48 read the environment impact report. We need to protect the reefs which are the main reason tourists come. They sure as hell don’t come for the shops…
Under the heading of private-public “Collaboration Failures”, did anyone in the Cayman Islands receive the Tsunami Warning System Test text messages expected at 9:10am from Flow or Digicel? I know we didn’t. I guess we’re all gonna die…#CaribeWave17
CNS: Any comment from Hazard Management Director McCleary Frederick?
http://en.unesco.org/news/caribbean-tests-tsunami-warning-system-1
https://cayman27.ky/2017/03/mass-alert-system-to-be-tested-next-week-in-tsunami-exercise/
Well we are all going to die; it’s inevitable.
But I do see your point.
In June 2014 Price Water House Coppers (PWC) was awarded the consultancy financing contract to advance cruise berths. The bid by KPMG at that time was rejected. I estimate that some CI$600k plus has been spent over the last 4 years with PWC. From the inception of PWC’s work they found it challenging to come up with a financing model that could work for Cayman. Now KPMG has been awarded a CI$400k consultancy contract. KPMG had been previously employed by Cayman on several occasions to do the same thing and the results have been the same as what PWC found. I wonder what is different now and why at the 11th hour before the general election? This is the seventh attempt to finance and build cruise berthing piers and many many millions dollars have been spent on various consultancy services over the years. It is important to understand that consultants do not make decisions but rather analyze the data and provide options for the Government to use in making the decisions. They take our wristwatch and tell us the time. If this Government in 2013 was opened to understanding the past efforts they would have known they were going down the same road; a road that had been explored before and it was a dead end. What I can say is that I tried to tell them this but I was called all kind of names and labelled an obstructionist, just for trying to tell the facts. We have come full circle at the peoples expense.
The gravy train continues to roll along! What KPMG really need to do is sit down with the cruises lines (not the FCCA – they don’t hold the purse strings) and ask them how many passengers they are willing to commit to and how much money they’re prepared to put in if this is built. I can already tell you what the answer will be – NOTHING!
So far all this expensive posturing hasn’t produced one viable incentive to attract any long-term outside commitment to the project. In fact quite the opposite because it’s become clear that the only people with any real interest in building the damn thing are more concerned about looking after themselves than the economic realities of life.
In simple terms we seem to be looking at three scenarios here –
1. The cruise facility simply isn’t built.
2. To keep the various vested interests happy the facility is built by CIG without any outside investment using borrowed money that is hopefully repaid by docking and landing fees. That’s a huge gamble and one I very much doubt the UK government will sign off on.
3. CIG says to heck with the vested interests and does a deal with one of the cruise lines that pumps funding into the project in return (quid pro quo if you like) for the investors having first shout on all the various concessions and attractions that are created. They will obviously be expected to employ local staff to run the cruise facility but at the end of the day it all belongs to the cruise line. That might mean all the people like Kirk’s and Tortuga would be shut out but in business terms if this is going to move on it makes the most sense because someone else takes all the risks.
Personally, I still think the answer is to build something like the Grand Turk Cruise Center on the Brac. It could reduce the load on Grand Cayman while creating much-needed jobs and bringing investment to the island without really doing much damage. As a tourist destination the Brac is dead anyway so the only people likely to get upset as the ones who’ve built expensive holiday homes there.
Please….. Not on the Brac! Don’t mess up my little paradise!!! I don’t like crowds. I don’t like traffic. I don’t like crime. I don’t like pollution. I don’t even like politics!!!
Relatively sensible response until your last paragraph, which makes me question if you are serious or a WUM.
The Brac is the home of the Cayman elite (at least in their minds) and for draining CIG coffers to fund their dream…how dare you suggest common tourists could go there in droves…
Regardless to you say , I am not going to use it. Sounds like getting campaign donation legal and transparency to me .
The budget for ‘consultation’ seems akin to the U.S. military budget.. limitless! Yet just yesterday 3 kids from a public school was marching down my road seeking donations to buy supplies for their school.judt another example of Piss Poor Management in action.
Spending $500k on a report for a project that likely wont ever be done. How about spending this money working on a plan to fix the dump! It is a far more pressing issue than this port because it could one day become such a problem we will lose fly in tourists. And for what? Just so we can more easily accommodate Cruise Passengers that spend far less on island than the ones that stay in the hotels. Utterly ridiculous and outrageous this whole plan. Especially when you think that Moses has personal business interest in this port.
Shame, Shame, shame. Thank God elections are around the corner. I hope some new thinking peopel will will be successful in this election.
That money would be better spent upgrading Spotts dock as, after all the hullabaloo, we still won’t be able to use the new, improved dock in Georgetown in a northwester. After the dredging, we may not even have a downtown after a strong northwester. Lord, speak to the hearts and reasoning mind of these people.
Amen to that.
This is the most expensive business plan I’ve ever heard of, ever. They could have just gone online, download a free template, and tweak it a little bit. But no, that is too easy they said. We need to pay someone half-a-milli, and then hope and pray that we get re-elected so that the plan won’t be shelved by whoever comes after us.
Great work, guys. 500K? Wow…
The headlines should really read “KPMG wins contract to save our capital and to prevent a monopoly boat company from holding back the whole country”
The sad (and free) truth is that without any passenger arrival commitments from the big three liners, we can’t bank on fantasyland data. At best we can extrapolate numbers based on hypothetical capacity assumptions. The greatest recurring fantasy will be the naive assumption that we will only have to build this blue water pier once within the period of amortization, and that once constructed, it will have zero operational, dredging, and maintenance expenses.
Again; building a cruise berthing facility BEFORE tackling the biggest issue the entire Country is faced with, the DUMP.
What happens when “Mt. Trashmore” explodes! It is toxic and there are literally tons of deadly toxins leaking out into our North Sound and into the air!
Lets bring the cruise ships in even closer so they can have a better view of all our CRAP!
Third world mentalities; the minds that time forgot!
Two different issues entirely and the dump IS being tackled. If they waited to completely finish one before working on the other you’d say government isn’t doing anything. They do things in parallel and you’re still complaining? There’s just no pleasing some people!
How is the dump being tackled exactly? Do enlighten us….
Please do not respond with “they’re conducting an evaluation”.
Seriously, the dump has been “pending” for the last 25 years!
Wake-up! You’re literally drinking the Kool-Aid.
Radioactive waste also goes into the Dump. Perfect brewing ground for “new” kind of plague as the environment is conducive to it-warn and moist plus lots of animals, rodents and insects to spread it around the island.
oh right then 12.27…can you get on your cosmic telephone and call Superman to sort out our woes? Or do you contact him by telepathy? Might need to take off the metal foil on your head first….talk to Elvis, he will know what to do.
Your an official looney tune. Your never to. E taken seriously, I hope you don’t have a job at some local bank, immigration or are being protected by the whims of wealthy albeit stingy folks at home.
I might have enjoyed your insult, had it been in English.
I suggest that you read (re-read) the recent public reports on toxins “leaking out into our North Sound and into the air”. I think you will find that your “literally tons” reference is very highly overstated. The solution for the dump is progressing. Just make sure you support it when it arrives. Do your part with reusing, reducing, & RECYCLING. From NOW.
12:39, they said they had the solution to the dump 4 years ago. What have we seen after 4 years?
Not very much!
On May 24th 2017 VOTE THEM OUT!
Nobody wants them anyway.
8:44 am Yes vote them out
We had a way for government to pay absolutely nothing. But blew that opportunity because we just can’t stand someone else making money on their investment. It’s all about what goes in my pocket. Pathetic.
Why is this guy allowed to continue with this? Nobody wants it apart form the Kirkonnells and a few taxi operators. Its a conflict of interest for him to be continually pushing for this project as Deputy Premier and owners of the largest duty free retailer in our Islands. Supporters of this and his BS lip service are akin to Trump followers; complete morons.
Our taxi drivers fail to understand that they will be among the first casualties when the logistics of moving 15,000 people a day come into focus. It is inevitable and necessary, with many precedents in ports around the world, that the liners will run their own private fleets of 40+ passenger motor coaches to move these crowds on their timetable, to control risks, and optimize upland revenue. All of our quaint “small business” vendors will fade from relevance or no longer qualify for the party. They will be excluded or squeezed out of contention. It will amplify the inequities. There are lots of news articles on this. This is what happens.
Have you noticed Tropicana Tours new fleet? I wonder what they have whispering into that owners ears behind closed doors.
All people need to do is look at Falmouth in Jamaica which is a living example of what happens with a project of this magnitude. The feed BS to all the locals who in turn support it as the savior to all their woes and then build it leaving them and all the promises behind. People who believe this group of Politicians must have been deaf, dumb and blind over the last 12yrs.
Leave the President of the U.S. alone and focus on your country leaders.
12:29 agreed with you the President of U. S. A. is a good man, try to get a man like him for premier.here.,
KPMG staff are not the numbers crunchers, but highly qualified, certified and licensed professionals.
12:31 Didn’t you leave out ‘grossly over-paid’ from that description?
2.59 Obviously not judging by the number of paying clients they have. Don’t fret though, if you ever finish school with good qualifications and a degree as well as learning to work smart and hard, you could be earning that much too! Otherwise your comment would be jealousy and clearly that couldn’t be the case in Cayman.
If anyone is getting “overpaid” it’s the people at the top, the associates who actually do the work get worked to the bone
KPMG staff works 45-70 hours a week on a regular basis, no overtime paid. If anything, they are underpaid.
I don’t make much, but I’m not jealous of the money they make, and you shouldn’t be either. The choices we’ve made have led us to where we are in life. If you were making their money, that comment would have never appeared here.
Professionals? In what field?
the ignorance is real.
I almost choked on my coffee reading 3:08 pm comment,LOL
SSM345 you were doing well until you disintegrated into bringing in Trump ‘morons’. That was uncalled for. I don’t call McKeeva’s followers morons. At least not out loud.. (Okay maybe some do)
You’re so thick you don’t even realize that the biggest player on this island also wants this thing done. He’s keeping out of it though and staying quiet.
I’ll give you a hint; Who else owns all the rest of the jewellery stores in town and will be the main beneficiary of the dock if it is built?? You are a naïve moron to forget about his agenda.
Hahahaha! SSM345 doesn’t like to admit it but he has a vested interest in our 4 letter sugar daddy.
I agreed with you until you dissed Trump. We need a leader like Trump!
Last thing we need is a man who is going to sell western national security interests to the Russians just so Trump and his friends can cash in financially.
Get off high horse on Russia. They are just like you and me and everyone else but warmonger politicians who just want to live in peace and raise their children.
2:46, If you think Putin and the clique of oligarchs and FSB people that surround him are like you and me then you need to wake up and smell the roses and also spend some time in Moscow. Do not mistake the Russian people for the ruling elite in Moscow who are thugs and gangsters sucking the country dry as they get their billions out with investments in Trump Tower, Miami real estate projects and expensive real estate in central London.
Read the entire comment first! And I do live in Moscow, and I do love Putin.
a quote: “To which the BBC quoted the Kremlin as saying in cool and measured response: “We’re very disappointed that minister Fallon is so aggressively disposed; we are sure that such an accusation against our country is unfounded. We don’t see how a minister that has such a senior post can carry out such unfounded accusations that are based on nothing at all.””
7:19 you have been living too long in Russia as your love of Putin shows no bounds as you have been caught up in Putin’s dezinformatsiya. You did not bother to outline the context of British Defence Minister’s Fallon comments as reported by BBC News on February 3. The British Minister stated quote Russia is carrying out a sustained campaign of cyber attacks targeting democracy and critical infrastructure in the West. Vladimir Putin has chosen to become a strategic competitor of the West unquote. The FBI hearings this week in Washington also support this view.
Yours in the pursuit of freedom and truth.
No 2.46, I worked there for a while. They are not anything like us.
Yeh, the are mostly Caucasians to start with.
Garfield, are you from Chicago or New York?
When I can’t find anything intelligent to say I usually say nothing.
I take my hat off to you. Trump is the man of the hour.
Different Kirkconnell family bright light
@8:00 am, there is a video on youtube “I’m Afraid of Trump—The Work of Byron Katie”. I recommend you watch it to see who the real morons are. LOL
Why haven’t we heard anything from the Engineering Consultants that have been “revising the design?”
Probably haven’t given them enough tax payers $ yet.
Moses is wasting $500,000 of the government purse on a report which in all likelihood won’t be ready until after the election at which time it will go into the waste bin as there will be a different government in place (even if it is PPM it will look much different).
What’s the hurry Moses. That money just burning a hole in your pocket.
Congratulations to KPMG! Fool(DOT/CIG) and his money are soon parted.
What a handsome number! $505,500…must remember to quote my clients that.
So let me see if I got this right. The ppm are going to spend 500k+ to try to figure out how to pay for a project they have no clue how much it will cost?
Seriously?
More fantasy stuff by Moses and PPM addicted to wasting public funds on consultant reports pretending to be progressive
C’Mon Maaaaan
I am completely against it but come on man. Did you not see or do you not remember McWeevil and crew and their fiasco with the worldwide diplomatic kerfuffle that ensued as a result? Two heads on one beast, both eating Cayman’s future so that Dart can turn the whole place into his own little fiefdom. Brilliant, just effin brilliant. More $$$$ down the drain.
“…officials said they will provide both commercial financial and legal services”
The LP Bill makes practice of law by non admitted lawyers illegal. In light of this how can the official say that KPMG will provide “legal services”??