Budget to be delivered in 10 days

| 17/10/2017 | 27 Comments

(CNS): The Government of National Unity will be delivering its first budget and strategic policy statement on 27 October, officials have confirmed. Finance Minister Roy McTaggart is expected to present a spending plan to cover the next two years, and Premier Alden McLaughlin will be setting out the stall for his coalition government over the next three and a half years. The governor will also deliver the Throne Speech, which, although at the top of the bill, has become increasingly ceremonial with very little substance. Government’s substantive plans are now presented in the SPS, while the nitty-gritty of public spending is detailed in the budget figures.

This will be the electorate’s first real glimpse into the future plans of the coalition government, which was formed because no clear winner emerged after the May general elections. The SPS should make clear what policies the Progressives will continue to pursue in line with their own manifesto and what they have embraced from the manifesto of their coalition colleagues, the CDP.

The public will also get to see whether any campaign promises made by the independent candidates that are now in the coalition government have been adopted.

This is the first budget that will be delivered to a Legislative Assembly made up of representatives of single-member constituents, so the question of how fair government is in allocating money to districts represented by opposition members will be much more apparent. In past years the representatives for East End and North Side, Arden McLean and Ezzard Miller, accused the government of punishing their districts because they were in the opposition.

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Category: Government Finance, Politics

Comments (27)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    hopefully the fco are still reviewing everything…..
    thank god for the fco!

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Why build a billion$$ dock when Dart is prepared Now for cruiseship-to-shore tenders/floating docks? do u think his skyway and bridges are for local beachgoers?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Keep on smoking whatever it is you are smoking, it makes for great imaginative story telling…

  3. Anonymous says:

    Why is the govt ie civil service exempt from the national labour laws. in terms of rollover and benefits etc.??

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  4. Anonymous says:

    West Bay Premier you’re indicative of the perception that many foreigners have of Caymanians in general – that we’re unwilling to work the extra hour or two, go the extra mile. What is wrong with working a few extra hours to (a) address one’s responsibilities and (b) enhance the service/product delivery of one’s employer? In most cases, such dedication is recognized and rewarded – everything does not have to be about the exactness of collecting every dollar for every single act done.

    Your comments indicate that you are one of those who fit the general perception and description that paints us all with the same brush – lazy, with an entitlement mentality. Clearly you are of the generation which has tarnished our previous reputation of being hardworking! Shame on you!!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Anonymous says:
      18/10/2017 at 11:07 am” everything does not have to be about the exactness of collecting every dollar for every single act done.”

      When the auditor general concludes that the financial statements gave an untrue and unfair view in accordance with the financial reporting framework. If a company make you suspicious, that’s a sure sign that you should dig dipper.

      My two cents

    • West bay Premier says:

      11:07 am , when last did you properly get compensated for your hard work and dedication to your employer and got a pay raise for going beyond ? When last did your boss tell you how much he /she appreciate you for going above and beyond ? I am not saying that you shouldn’t do a good job and shouldn’t go beyond what is required. I saying that everyone needs to be treated equal and with respect.

  5. West bay Premier says:

    Why on earth are people /employees sitting down and letting Government and Companies /employer to work you 45 hours per week. In any civilized country a work week is 40 hrs and anything over is o/t . Do people in Cayman Islands today have to sign agreeing to work a minimum of 45 hrs a week ? Do companies pay for your lunch break ? If you are not that means that 9 out of 10 hours out of each day is being used to benifit the employer only . Then 5 hrs over every week really benefits the employer but not the slave that gets to use or get anything done for themselves .
    Can we see how the Government is protecting business people and not the the working people .

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    • Anonymous says:

      Welcome to the real world…if we don’t get the work done, we either don’t get a pay rise or get fired. Certainly in financial services your attitude would not be conducive to the career advancement of Caymanians, and maybe you should think of that. There is also a huge difference between those who claim to work long hours, and those that actually do the work.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Pay rises! where? Not this government! There is a moratorium in pay increases and promotions for caymanians.

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      • West bay Premier says:

        Anonymous 11:30am . Thanks for your reply . The defending of over working people and don’t want to pay o/t .

        CAYMANIANS are not the only ones that are being used . You thinks that it’s fair to overwork people for your benifit . How would you like to work 5 hrs each week × 52 weeks for the year without being properly compensated for it ?

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        • Anonymous says:

          My point was I don’t get overtime and do far more than 45 hour weeks..there are never enough hours and frankly I think most people are getting tired of it.

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      • West bay Premier says:

        Again if that kind of thinking is your real world , I would hate to see what a third world would be like to live and work in .

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        • Anonymous says:

          Look out the window and you will see. If you find that offensive, don’t, the same is happening the world over. More work for the same or inflation eroded pay..
          Why do you think Blackberry and then Apple and Lenovo became such giants? Do you think employers are giving us phones and laptops because they love us? No, they give them so we can work at home and on holiday and now actually demand that we “stay connected” even during vacations. That is why there should be legislation banning the use of work phones before 8 a.m and after 6pm (French style) for office workers. It is abuse, any which way you look at it.

  6. Anonymous says:

    in 10 days? Pizza takes 30 minutes…

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  7. Anonymous says:

    in dart i trust.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Government Hospital clinicians, nurses, lab techs, paramedics will begin receiving checks in the mail as the HSA send out over CI 7 million in owed overtime pay and penalty payments. CI Hospital failed to pay appropriate overtime and asked the unity government to compensate more than 100 staff.
    Documents shown from eleven separate unpaid overtime class action lawsuits filed between 2002 and 2017, claiming that the HSA failed to correctly calculate the often irregular hours worked by hsa nurses, paramedics…. According to documents they were on 14-hour shifts with days off in between, and frequently logged 48 hours in a week. Cayman overtime Law’s states that for all hours worked over 37.5 per week, employees are to receive overtime pay at a rate 1 1/2 times their salary.
    Whether intensionally or unintentionally some employers engage in unlawful practices to avoid paying overtime.

    FOI please

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    • Anonymous says:

      Please learn to read please, the law does not state 37.5 hrs. This is how you people take hearsey and make ignorant comments all the time

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    • Anonymous says:

      Overtime is usually payable after 45 hours in a week, and 9 hours in a day, and is not payable for management and professional positions – provided contracts have been properly drafted. Have they been? If not, the government’s liability could be enormous.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The Labour Law mentions 45 hours before OT if my memory is correct, not 37.5

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    • Anonymous says:

      In the current environment, it is easy to understand why CFOs spend so much of their time trying to avoid crises. Better than the CFO and his or her staff unearth looming financial crises within the departments, quietly dealing with them internally, than the auditor general expose them to a politically charged environment through high profile public reports. Government waste, inefficiency, misuse of public funds, and corruption are hot topics. In matters of public money, it is these issues, not questions on the magnitude of public spending or on expenditure allocation, that resonate most with caymanians, the opposition and the media. The scope for missteps seemingly endless- a controversial project that has overrun its initial budget forecast.
      Whatever the issue is, it immediately piques the interests and concerns caymanians and the auditor general.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Only took four months, right, then again the US election was in November and they are still dealing with budgeting issues, then again the US is a huge country with a huge population and a huge government budget to manage and this island is tiny jurisdiction with relatively small expenses. I’m sure it is a tough job but 4 months, exactly how much time a day do they spend doing this to justify 4 months and barely fitting it in to the month they set for themselves (after putting it off for two weeks earlier this month) ?

    This is the same government that is allocating another 2 whole years to “multi-stage assessment” to figure out how they are going to finish JGHS which was started bascially 10 years ago.

    Incompetence goes unpunished, they just push back deadlines and screw over the people of the islands with their inability to plan for anything until there is a glaring problem and people are making a stink about it ( the dump, the insane traffic in the mornings and evenings to get from east to west and vice versa, the aged and overflowing schools and education facilities, the girls and boys homes and their various inadequacies, the airport and it’s aged facilities and lack of room for expansion etc etc etc)

    Everything is reactive not proactive with the CIG as new problems are emerging in the present they are still 5 years behind dealing with the previous messes (and getting themselves into new ones)

    Diogenes of Cayman

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  10. Anonymous says:

    ZzzzzzZzzzzzzzz. All hot air an no action

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