Accounting skills land property firm green iguana job

| 24/10/2018 | 43 Comments
Cayman News Service

Fred Burton, manager of the DoE Terrestrial Unit

(CNS): The strong record of financial management and accounting experience has landed Cornwall Consulting, a property management company led by Karl Noble, the contract to run the national green iguana cull. Following a competitive bidding process involving five firms, Cornwall Consulting was chosen by government’s procurement committee.

It will now manage some 340 individual cullers as well as businesses involved in the island-wide initiative to tackle the invasive pest which is eating its way through the local environment at an alarming rate.

The cull begins Monday, and the chief officer in the ministry noted that a lot of “behind-the-scenes work went into this project”.

Jennifer Ahearn said that Department of Environment Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie and Fred Burton, the manager of the DoE Terrestrial Resources Unit, deserved kudos for making it a reality.

Burton explained that Cornwall Consulting will now sub-contract with the registered cullers to ensure that the operation runs smoothly.

“Cornwall will manage adjustments to the initial culling quotas given to those registered cullers and will report regularly to the Green Iguana Cull Project Steering Committee. Information on how many green iguanas have been culled will be reported to DoE each day and we will release those numbers via our website to the public and the media on a regular basis,” Burton said.

The operation will be the largest cull ever undertaken by the Cayman Islands Government, and each culler has pledged to round up a set quota of green iguanas in the first month. The dead iguanas will be taken to the landfill, where Cornwall Consulting will take and count the animals.

They will collate the data to ensure that the cullers are paid for their bounty and that the DoE knows how many of the invasive iguanas are being removed from the population, which, according to this summer’s survey, could be as many as 1.6 million.

“The invasive green iguana population affects all Grand Cayman residents,” Noble said. “With DoE’s quantification of the green iguana population at 1.1 million to 1.6 million and the prospect of significant increases over time, my firm felt strongly that we had to become involved to help solve this threat to our environment. We are encouraged that the DoE chose our firm and we believe that the resources exist locally to prevent the damage that would otherwise occur if this invasive species is left unchecked.”

The minister with responsibility for the environment, Dwayne Seymour, said he was looking forward to the commencement of this major undertaking, which he said had the full support of the Cayman Islands Government. However, government will need to vote more funds for the ongoing initiative if it is to reach the ultimate goal of reducing the population to a level where it is no longer negatively impacting the local environment.

“We’re pleased to see Caymanian cullers and Caymanian businesses benefiting directly from this effort,” Seymour stated about the operation.

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Category: Land Habitat, Science & Nature

Comments (43)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    I can’t find how the cullers will actually kill the iguanas, anyone know?

  2. Anonymous says:

    Are the police ready to deal with the 911 calls from homeowners who do not give permission to the cullers to enter their land ?
    Would you tackle an armed tresspasser ?

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Clearly all the civil service are too busy to take on the role of supervision and payment of the cullers…or is it that a trusted civil servant cannot be found to supervise as everyone believes collusion between the assigned civil servant will result in cullers being overpaid ..how much is CIG paying the supervising accountants to count dead iguanas ?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Its simply outsourcing. The CS could have created a ‘department of killing pests’ but then it wouldn’t have hired a bunch of NICE people, and it EY Report said that we should outsource Govt. wuk to their consultant friends and CNS commenters hate it when the size of the CS grows. So this way – external contracts for all – everyone is happy. Except for you. Sorry.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Counting thousands of dead iguanas a day, most of which will have been ripening in the sun for several days, melting into one big rotten mass. A job for an auditor with a strong stomach and nothing else to do.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    My captive breeding program is about to pay dividends.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    property managers…not just good for blocked toilets!…they can count dead iguanas too!

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  7. Anonymous says:

    ‘Green Iguana Cull Project Steering Committee’…..zzzzzzzz
    god bless the civil service!

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  8. Anonymous says:

    civil service…..always willing to pay someone else to do their jobs.
    welcome to wonderland

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    • Anonymous says:

      I somewhat agree but the hiring process in think would take too long. We all know to well the glacial pace of the government!

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  9. Anonymous says:

    So any registered person is given permission to trespass on private property to kill iguanas ? think about this … more homes will be robbed and crops taken all in the name of conservation. Suppose you will also have no right to tell them to leave your property either. Get out your pool chairs and open up your beer coolers, and say goodbye to your coconuts as this will not end well until someone gets shot ….

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    • Anonymous says:

      are you accusing the civil service of not thinking this out properly??????

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    • Anonymous says:

      WRONG YOU ARE COMPLETELY WRONG.

      If you got your facts you would not of made such opinionated statement. Registering as culler only gives the culler the means to get paid by government for the iguanas that he or she collects. Every culler, individuals of a company has to seek permission to enter and cull on properties. If you dont not the owners have everyright to contact the rcips and have you removed and should leave your catch behind as technically your stealing.

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    • Anonymous says:

      This is true. Hands down. Hence the ‘hate’ – they dislike anything good for em!

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  10. Anonymous says:

    I’m not complaining about a 3rd party being used… It should prevent the head count from being altered in favor of the cullers. I think if Bobo the Cullers cousin who is a government employee was counting iguanas for Bobo it might end up costing a lot more.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Killing the iguanas will be the easy part. Hauling 400 dead ones to the dump from East End or North Side…not so easy.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Crickey and blimey…Of all there is to do in this life mate…
      ..bare in mind the majority of you lot have never farmed an onion before and are online discussing the mass slaughter harvest of living entities. (its your fault there here, as they were never before…come on now ‘Adult leaders’)

      Govt simply out of touch. Soon to be out of time…

  12. Anonymous says:

    Triple the cruise ship dock cost estimates cause likely it will need consultants to oversea the consultants of the consultants.

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  13. Anonymous says:

    Let me get this straight. I understand there were grave concerns regarding accountability of this project. If DOE personnel were used to tally the iguanas, we would have screamed about corruption and favoritism. They hired an independent firm to do the count and payouts……….. and yet we scream about it.

    The project has not yet begun. For some people, no solution will ever be the right one. The protests seem more motivated toward complaining about the CIG itself, than the iguana culling process.

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  14. Anonymous says:

    Smh, can’t please everyone I guess. How can people be so judegemental without even knowing someone or their track record? Its quite “noble” that a CPA/MBA has offered their expertise to a project such as this. 9 million dollars is a lot of money, don’t people want transparency? Prove them wrong mi brother.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes. Publish an accounting of the payments made to all cullers. Then everyone can shut up.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes offering to manage a 9 million dollar contract is noble. Lmao. More like profitable.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Typical chronic pessimist, without knowing the facts. The Money budgeted for the cull does not belong to noble or cornwall consulting. The company were SELECTED thru a rigorous bidding process (there were other applicants) to manage the project on the behalf of the government. Each culler is responsible for their income (via pledged set quotas) in regards to the catch. After cornwall has verified the amount they are paid from, you guessed it, the 9 million dollars project budget! Reading throughly, maybe more than once, always helps.

        I’m sure they’re not doing this for free but it might not be as lucrative as na sayers make it out to be.

  15. Anonymous says:

    A joke.
    Even I could sit at the dump and count dead iguana.

    CNS. Please find out the cost of hiring the consultants

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  16. Anonymous says:

    Congratulations Karl. I did not know you left Dart… You left Dart, right?

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    • Ron Ebanks says:

      Why involve a third party in this iguana culling project ? I forgot that they can’t run a chicken pen .

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yeah he left a while ago

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    • Anonymous says:

      It would be extremely disappointing to learn that Dart has an interest in Cornwall.

      Too many small business that could/should be owned by Caymanians are controlled by Dart.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Clearly Dart introduced the green iguana 25 years ago with this very plan in mind. Also, did you know that Katy Perry is really Jon Benet Ramsey?

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      • Anonymous says:

        Dart is Caymanian

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        • Anonymous says:

          Yes he is a Caymanian. And the fact that the Dart companies are not publicly traded we do not know the depth of his wealth although we expect it to be substantial. That said, why does a billionaire Caymanian need to own all the small businesses in the country? Two liquor retailers and a distributor, cinema, bookstore, construction, paving, trucking, nurseries, landscaping, buses, stingray city boats, clothing stores, jewelry stores, restaurants, media outlets, grocery stores…

          Although some of the companies started from scratch. Most were created by Caymanians who sold out.

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      • Anonymous says:

        *coughs* check some of those names

    • Anonymous says:

      Dart got rid of its asset management team which was essentially where Karl worked.

  17. Anonymous says:

    Cash or Accrual? You know how some people or governments like to report unearned revenue.

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  18. Anonymous says:

    What?! Government couldn’t resist wasting more public funds by paying a third party to count dead iguanas! Disgusting!

    Always looking to consultants! Maybe Cabinet should hire a consultant to weigh the shit they generate!!

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    • Anonymous says:

      This is worse than disgusting. We have people in the Department with nothing to do and they can’t even count? Give them a calculator even if it means that we need to hire someone to teach them how to use it, would be cheaper than hiring outside “consultants” to count the iguana heads. Did this nonsense go out to tender? I would have given up my job and bid on this, probably make enough money in a year to retire.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Did you read the article?? If you did, read it again! It did go out to tender, it was advertised for several weeks. And for your enlightenment – it’s not just counting iguana heads.

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    • Anonymous says:

      So wait i thought CNS bloggers wanted a smaller civil service and more services provided by the private sector.

      Okay folks this is it!!

      Kudos to the Ministry.

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      • Anonymous says:

        it would be nice if someone in the civil service could do the job they are paid to do……or maybe no-one in the civil service can count to 400…?

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  19. Anonymous says:

    Wanted.
    Dead iguana counter.
    Must be able to count up to 400.

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  20. Anonymous says:

    Strong record? They’ve been in business how long exactly? LOL!

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