CIG on track for whopping surplus
(CNS): Government’s fiscal performance is on track for a record surplus. The financial results for the first nine months of this year show the public purse bursting at the seams with a net surplus of $183.8 million. A 99% increase on the projected figures, government has already collected $91.3 million more than it had budgeted. Officials said this was due to revenues and expenses both outperforming initial projections and the statutory authorities and government companies (SAGCs) doing much better than predicted, adding $15 million more to the public coffers. A decline in revenue and an increase in spending in the last quarter is expected but CIG is still on track to exceed its original forecasts.
The unaudited Financial Report for 1 January to 30 September, released by the Minister for Finance and Economic Development on Friday, reveals a much better than expected performance, with core government registering a surplus of almost $173 million and the SAGCs another $11 million. Finance Minister Roy McTaggart pointed out that government revenue declines in the second half of the year but he remained confident that the CIG will easily make its forecast surplus for the whole of 2018.
“While revenues are generally lower in the second half of the financial year, the government is confident that the positive results for the first nine months of the financial year will enable us to achieve or exceed the budgeted net surplus of $81 million by the end of this year,” he stated.
This results were achieved by higher-than-anticipated coercive revenues from import and stamp duties, tourist fees and financial services-related revenues, officials said in a press release about the report.
Government registered higher than budgeted revenue in most lines. On the other side of the balance sheet government spent less than expected on personnel and supplies. The anticipated figures in the budget for staff was $13.2 million lower than forecast and more than $15 million for supplies and consumables. The positive variances were reduced by expenditures for non-government suppliers, which were $9.2 million more than expected.
Government ended the nine-month reporting period with a healthy bank balance, with cash and deposits standing at $535.2 million, $112 million more than the budget prediction. Debt also fell to $430.2 million, $35.7 million lower than the debt balance this time last year.
In the report ministry officials said the performance of the first three quarters of the year leads the government to be optimistic about hitting the budget predictions.
“If ministries, portfolios and SAGCs remain diligent the government should, at a minimum, achieve the budgeted EPS net surplus of $81 million at the end of 2018,” the report states. “However, the performance of the final quarter of 2018 will determine whether the government meets its budgeted performance, or surpasses it by a significant margin.”
Personnel costs are expected to increase during the last quarter following the 5% Cost of Living Adjustment, which was paid in September 2018, back-dated to July 2018. But other expenditure will, at a minimum, stay at the levels seen in the second and third quarters. Positive results in revenue are expected to sufficiently mitigate any additional costs but “proper diligence must be maintained”, the report warned.
See the report here on the finance ministry website
Can we really trust any numbers coming out of there?
Don’t they always get qualified opinions?
If they don’t have the information to be audited, how can we be sure of anything that is reported.
A ruse to make it look like we can afford the Port?
JETWAYS are desperately needed, mostly for Tourism.
Embarrassing.
taxing the voting class to pieces (poor) and not paying them nothing…simple math! ??
Ok Cool. Church cash = votes. Now lets give million$$ to some group that couldn’t raise enough to even paint their mega church dinosaur of a concrete ark in the past decade, while homeless locals are housed in hotels .
Go BT politicians ! Thats the way to spend my cash without asking me.
Has anyone actually read the report? It’s unaudited and very temporary. The civil service bonus eats it up by year end.
They get bonuses?
Nice job Aldart…record work permit and PR fees…short term success at long term detriment. Thankfully you’ve secured your future…soon you will be one of the BMOC…Big Men on Cayman.
Unaudited – and as the report admits, the July 2018 5% Cost of Living Allowance chews through this surplus by Q4 2018. We’re still (at least) $430mln in debt, much of which is due to be refinanced next November at a much higher borrowing rates. We’re still not in any financial position to be talking about large capital projects, or making plans to spend fictional “extra” money. The “net surplus” is the amount brought in/retained over best guess budget expense projection, not the same as “net profit” in a company. In theory you could over estimate expenses in every budget cycle and come in with these miraculous political “net surplus” that don’t move the needle on anything material in the real world.
Yippee! More “qualified” teachers instead of more teachers you can get for a cheap price. Solution to the trash problem on all three islands. Let’s just see how this rolls!
Yipee more money for NAU!
Yes, but like fools with money, this government will soon be parted with it.
It’s expected to be fully consumed by Q4 due to July 2018 5% Cost of Living Allowance…then we go into the red again.
Great! This is just enough to cover future consultant fees. Gov sees a surplus and the politicians see a project that needs a consultant. SMH
…sigh…and here I am, a teacher, hoping that government will provide more paper and textbooks for our students in high school…I guess my hopes have just been dashed…
How can this be? Did they find the “lost” $1 billion dollars?
http://archive.caymannewsservice.com/2014/10/21/1billion-unaccounted-for/
12:31. Stop living in the past.I pity you -cannot give credit where credit is due.
The answer to your question is that the $1b was never lost in the first place.
You are obviously a government stooge. Where is your proof? Do enlighten us all.
And “living in the past” is 4 years ago?? There are on going cases in court older than that. Living in the past, my ass.
What people who applaud news like this seem to forget is the money doesn’t just miraculously enter the government coffers. Someone has to pay it in and that means these funds are being extracted from the local economy. Given CIG’s abysmal track record on spending odds are when this windfall is used to ‘benefit’ us a lot of it will either be wasted or end up in the bank accounts of people who haven’t really earned it. Look at examples like OfReg, CAL, the Turtle Farm and parking lot resurfacing on the Brac.
Here’s a novel idea.
Take some of the surplus and pay down the government’s debt saving a fortune in interest costs and improving the territories credit rating.
Is that 5% cost of living adjustment applied on a yearly basis? Cause I sure don’t get that at my non governmental job.
Yeah, you have a bad employer. Form a union.
I am so proud of our Government. I know most of you are too small minded to admit it. We are blessed to live in the land of surpluses low unemployment cayman kind sun sand sea and safety. Amazing l!
We have the best run Government in the entire Caribbean and soon to be the World.
Thank you Premier and DG. Yes give them credit. Cause if the Government was broke we would be killing both of them.
Anonymous at 12:44. It’s people like you who causes so much havoc in the world. Absolutely no grey matter between your ears. Oblivious to what really matters.
Keep drinking that Kool Aid! Perhaps the best run government in the entire Caribbean and soon to be the world (?) could use that amazing paper surplus to fix the dump, and if there is anything left over, maybe a vocational school to help the disaffected young people gain some valuable skills, and we all know how Alden likes his schools.
Errrr, quit complaining and quit your job with an employer who doesn’t value you, or maybe you’re not that valuable.
How about treating pedestrians and Bikers with a little respect and put proper walking and Bicycle lanes on the new ETH. The shoulders are more than wide enough.
CIG should be doing the following with any surplus:
1. Buy gold
2. Buy gold
3. Buy gold
4. Buy land before Dart owns the entire island
5. Re-plant mangroves that have been destroyed by Hurricane Ivan and greedy developers
6. Trade school
7. Mental Health facility
Things CIG shouldn’t be doing with the surplus:
1: Building a cruise ship dock
On item #4, too late.
Any statistics to support your claim?
Being temporarily ahead of budget forecast in Q2 (which is a guesstimate), doesn’t mean we are in good shape by Q4. We still have $430 mln in long term debt (bulk of it coming due at higher rates next Nov, plus over a Billion in unfunded health and pension obligations. Gold doesn’t earn interest.
“Throw it in the sea! Throw it in the sea!!” – chant the pro-dock dock sheep.
Windfall for selling out Cayman should be the headline Unity Government has a PH in pimping and whoring out these islands to every $$ Johnny come lately dollar they see or hear about. Now we hear our resident Confidence Trickster hallering bout some mythical $urplus which will not I repeat wil not benefit one single solitary Caymanian except those slurping at the parties trough
In fairness, they do confess it is unaudited, and a temporary Q3 blip, fully consumed in Q4 due to the 5% July Cost of Living Allowance for civil servants. Then we descend back into the red for Q1 2019 and onwards to November 2019 when hundreds of millions in (acknowledged) debt will need to be consolidated and refinanced. The unacknowledged Billion plus in pension and healthcare liabilities will be left for some future fully-accountable regime to deal with.
Saved that in DEH overtime alone.
And by not going to casinos , world 5 star travels, bodyguards, etc.
Yeaah, we are all gonna be rich.
Education was never a priority for this government nor past governments. Of course Mr Truman Bodden started the ball rooling when he made scholarships available to all and not just the select few but no real meaningful plan was ever put in place to design and define the end results. They still haven’t figured out and targeted the reason for real education nor the benefits of educating our people. If they did there would not until this day be such a huge appetite for foreign labour. If they had paid attention there would be lots of room at the boardrooms of all the institutions on island for our people and no one would be able to say that our people are uneducated. Value for money and visionary minds goes hand in hand. Apathy towards our people and our homeland colided with money, selfish motives, discrimination and castes mentality and created the mess we have today. No one was directing the masses so only the few who were lucky enough to have parents or teachers with vision and thought process were able to keep their heads above water but after awhile they too were washed out in the deep without a rudder.
While I agree that government barely cares about the public schools I have to burst your theory a bit. Educators can only do so much, it’s up to parents to be the main driving force in their kids behaviour and learning. I don’t expect my sons teachers to be their role models, my husband and I are there for that. We set the example and they follow. You need to stop blaming government and start looking at the problem of people having babies without proper education about children and sex.
I fully agree that parents should be their children’s role model, I said it in my post that you wasted no time critizing. We were and are for ours and if I chose to let you know who they are you would have to agree. However parents no matter how skilled they are at being role models have very little to do with forming policies and framing designs and defining the outcomes in the ministries of education unless those parents were themselves ministers of education and only looking out for their own children. I said it before and I will say it again that no one was directing the masses so only the few who were lucky enough to have parents or teachers with vision and thought process were able to keep their heads above water.
It’s very hard for uneducated parents to help their children be educated. Some of them can’t read and write themselves. My father told me that my sons didn’t need an education to work here. He didn’t understand that those days are gone. He went to sea so he didn’t need to go to college. Fortunately, I want better for my children and pushed for that.
So true.
This sounds nice and all; however, this isn’t true.. Role models will help kids be able to read and write?? I will say I do believe it is up to the parents to some extent; however, school plays a very big part in the matter.. Myself and my child’s mother is very much apart of his life.. We noted lil issues with him and have been working our butts off to fix them.. However, that isn’t cheap! The amount of money in addition to time and effort put in to our child is a lot.. If my son was currently still in Gov school he would not be doing as well as he is.. I know this because he was in both public and private school.. He has been doing a lot better since his move but I cant help but to think to myself.. What happens to all those kids with parents who cant afford better schooling?? That my friend is where the gov and gov schools come in to play.. Yeh us people with some cash to our names can sit on our high horses and look down on others but that’s not the right way.. If Caymanian kids are failing the island is failing.. Lets fix this problem collectively, if you na down for the cause kindly STFU and move aside..
It is not better schooling – it is probable that your son is doing better due to having to deal with fewer disruptive dickheads. Believe me, there are some wonderful teachers at government schools, who are driven to distraction by inclusive policies and parents in denial.
Alden and Moses will use this surplus to build the dock and finish wrecking our environment, the little that is left.
More creative accounting by CIG. Behind this smoke and mirrors exercise the substantial long-term debts and unmet commitments more than offset the claimed surplus. In addition you have numerous sections of the public sector with such poor accounting standards that, at best, they make any financial reports suspect.
As announced by the Education Minister, Government school teachers will get a special pay adjustment.
Congratulations to the government for pulling this one off while some of us can hardly feed our children. I won’t go as far as saying it ain’t so because I don’t have access to their accounting system. Personally I only consider profit after every bill is paid and all contingent liability is covered but that is not the way accountants balance ” the balance sheets” so that is all I will say about that. However I have a few things that I would like to see them do with the huge surplus.
1. Build another primary school in the Bodden Town district
2. Buy more garbage trucks or get more staff – just do whatever it takes to get the garbage picked
up on schedule. It does not bode well when a country with so much surplus have garbage piled
Up on the roadside.
3. Hire more teachers so that our children are being properly tutored.
4. Finish the John Gray High School
5. Build the mental health facility
6. Convert all government buildings to solar and by so doing reduce global warming
7. Restructure Cinico so that I and others get more benefit than C.I 400 per year for a premium
Of C.I. Dlrs 501 per month.
8. Fully fund civil service pension fund
9.. implement the night classes that we were told would be held at the Clifton Hunter High School
For culinary arts, recording studios, olympic class swimming pool etc. Remember that is why
the school was costing so much.
10. Erect metered parking in George Town so that persons coming in can park.
11. Tear down the old government admin. building and come up with some worthwhile for that
location
12. Build hurricane shelters in each district that does not currently have
13. Pay off all government debt
14. If any funds remain then by all means research Red Bay Area to see if a reasonably priced
cruise dock can be build there.
Thanks for reading this. Make our ” Beloved land of fresh breezes” fresh again.
What about the dump?
Teachers with some common sense because a few of them have none whatsoever.
Schools and early learning need this windfall. Caymanian kids will find the workplace harder now that exptats “caymanian” children are entering the Labour market with a privately educated and directed background.
Can we have a few new schools please?
Preferably not at $110,000,000.00 a pop though.
– Who
*Btw, if it cost the above figure to erect a project above-ground in the bush of North Side, how da rass can we believe it will cost just $90m more to construct the cruise port in George Town…with all the necessary underwater blasting, dredging, and building??
#thingsthatmakeyougohmmm
Please a trade / vocational school.
An additional road option to the eastern districts would benefit alot of people especially if the government is planning to grow the population to the 100k mark. Invest in infrastructure such as roads, schools and healthcare to support and accommodate the growing population.
Well the fact that they are taking every dime from the public that they can is helping.
So what’s happened to the new Mental Health Facility that’s so desperately needed?.
Crazy idea to begin with
CIG on track for whopping surplus! Just in time for the next headline: CIG on track for whopping new Port! Coincidence?
Stamp duty mostly. Better ride the wave while they can.
How about stop spending and save the money for a rainy day.
EXACTLY!
nah, they going build more cheap ass sidewalks, err boardwalks, for millions.
This is what you get when qualified people are elected to properly manage our government. Well done Minister Mctaggart
Are you trying to say that Marco was not qualified?
Sovereign wealth fund? Nah, let’s keep importing poverty, spend it while we got it, waste even more than usual, and buy some votes.
Unfortunately, most people won’t benefit.
New projects will emerge and money will be distributed among a small group of people.
Thinking this could be used for healthcare,education and the poor, would be a mistake.
Yet public schools are failing, how about investing in the Children of Cayman?
Yep, should be able to provide paper and books for the schools now.
The issue with schools is not money. They spend more on each student than many private schools.
“per” student, not “on” student. Big difference.
I agree and, after having conversations with parents, I realize that, while there are some excellent teachers, many are hired because they come to work for a substandard salary. When you look at the failure rate it is obvious that money is not the whole problem. Use it to hire more qualified teachers and get tough about the existing standards.
How about promoting contraception.
How about picking up the garbage?
How about both?
How about mandating it.