CIG has plans for national disaster fund

| 06/06/2018 | 18 Comments

(CNS): Government has released a new piece of legislation which will pave the way to establish a national disaster fund that can be used to cover the immediate costs the country could face in the wake of a hurricane or other disaster, man-made or natural. This amendment to the Disaster Preparedness and Hazard Management Law that government will be bringing to the Legislative Assembly later this month will see government invest some $400,000 annually but it will also enable private sector donors to add to the fund.

The bill was published with this month’s Gazette and posted on the website Monday, in accordance with the rules that require laws to be placed in the public domain 21 days before they are debated in the LA. The other significant amendments to the existing law deals with changes in the way the public is notified of a national emergency.

The new bill states that this disaster fund “shall form part of the discretionary reserve of the finances of the core Government under the Public Management and Finance Law”, and that a management council will be created to look after the cash and advise Cabinet how to use it.

It also sets out an annual allotment of not less than $400,000 to be invested in the fund from general revenues each year and that any surplus in the annual budget for Hazard Management Cayman Islands at year-end can also be placed in the fund. In addition, it provides for contributions or grants by individuals, organisations or government to give to the fund.

The idea of creating such a dedicated fund was raised in Hazard Management’s 2012-2016 strategic plan to begin accumulating cash in preparation for potential disasters.

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Category: Government Finance, Laws, Politics

Comments (18)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    We should let the Honwobble Speaker administer it.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Do they mean “The disaster relief fund”?

    Who will direct, coordinate, manage, and fund eligible response and recovery efforts associated with major disasters?

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  3. Anonymous says:

    long range forecasting say we going have 40 knot winds in our area by yues or wed next week…?

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Will these monies be given too the people that need it or it will be big fat bad minded elephants again in the room stopping the people that really need the monies because they want too help themselves their families and friends even when they do not need it or they can afford it is just because they do not want to spend their money with their selfish bad minded and blocking greed as if government monies is for them so for the poorer to get poorer and richer to get richer in cayman that they can remain too have the power and control of the cayman islands and having the poorer class indigeous caymanians always begging for everything.

  5. Anonymous says:

    A good idea, but please get the right people to deal with the public and not some of our politicians. Some will get assistance and others wont.

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  6. SSM345 says:

    We are giving them a min $400k a year that can be used as they please by this new law; if govt fa real bout transparency can the AG be made the bookkeeper the minute the first dollar drop inna di bucket?

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  7. SSM345 says:

    400K min per annum taken from Govt revenue into some slush fund that they can use whenever; man-made or natural disaster? Why do I feel like Mac has legal costs covered for life?

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  8. Anonymous says:

    To get this Natural Disaster Fund off the ground right away with a good sum of money, now that we have entered the 2018 Hurricane season, cut every single elected member of Parliament salary in at least half. None of these elected members truly warrants their big salaries. NONE OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  9. Anonymous says:

    I do not remember voting for this.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    CIG is a national disaster.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Of course, this might sound like a good idea in theory, but just like the hundreds of millions collected in Environmental Recovery Fees that Cabinets now routinely tap into when they hit a predictable budgetary shortfall, this loot chest seems doomed to be misappropriated. Cabinet still has not set a date to enact the Standards in Public Life law (2014) to discourage corruption and habitualized bad behavior. Nobody in CIG wants to be accountable.

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    • Fair and Balanced says:

      It find it very vexing when people post comments that are absolute hogwash and details are spouted out without a care in the world whether it is accurate.
      The above post says ” like the hundreds of millions collected in Environmental Recovery Fees”. Do you know what the balance in the Fund is? $55 million.
      Do you know much is collected each year in that Fund? Around $5 million. Therefore, if the Fund increases by $5 million a year and the present balance in the Fund is around $55 million then, that means for about 11 years very little has been taken from it. It is therefore disgusting for the post at 5:24 pm to say ” Cabinets now routinely tap into when they hit a predictable budgetary shortfall”. 5:24 pm do you have any evidence for this hogwash? Has it never crossed your mind that if what you posted had one ounce of truth, the Auditor general would have said something about it?
      Don’t exaggerate when you post and, post facts, not vent to release pent up frustration in your life.

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      • Anonymous says:

        The EPF was established in 1997. Inbound yearly cruise liners are charged USD$2 per passenger head, and seasonal liners are charged $4.00 a head. The Travel (Departure Tax and Environmental Fee) Law required all outbound passengers to be levied an additional $4.00 a head fee. Residents and Tourists alike pay airline EPF fee of $4.00 a head as part of what is now $90 in departure taxes.

        Despite increasing air and cruise arrivals to >2.1mln “tourists” last year, the EPF has steadily accrued, on average, over $5mln a year for more than 20 years. By 2013, over $29mln had been withdrawn by a former Leader of Gov’t Business to buttress CIG accounts and keep the lights on, and a further $12mln was spent post 2016. $1mln of which went to finance the DEH’s tyre shredding (for which specific separate DEH tire disposal taxes had been collected) – material which was then sold-on as fill to developers and not repaid back into the EPF.

        Certain air and cruise lines have had a long history of under reporting collected passenger EPF fees to treasury…this was highlighted in an audit back in 2013:
        http://www.pocs.gov.ky/portal/pls/portal/docs/1/12050119.PDF

        Even with what we know has been spent, and the ballpark figure of >$5mln a year for >20 years we should have, at minimum, $64,000,000 remaining, assuming zero compounding interest earned for two decades. The evidence stands that this fund hasn’t been managed competently and it’s been looted by successive Cabinets who don’t want to be held accountable through enactment of the Standards in Public Life Law.

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  12. Diogenes says:

    Don’t worry Cayman when it comes to an unnecessary $200 million dollar port we can spend that but hurricane shelters, schools, a new court house, police stations, etc we have to wait for and then they will put 400,00 dollars away per year what is that going to fix one house? One ripped off roof? Hurricane Ivan alone did almost 3 billion dollars of damage in Cayman alone, the CIG needs to take preparation seriously

    Diogenes

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  13. Anonymous says:

    That cash will be gone on new F150’s and Chev ‘ Tahoe’s , just watch the road in the coming months

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