$220k spent from port vote $1.32M budget

(CNS): An additional CI$1,320,000 was budgeted for the people-initiated referendum on the cruise port project, but in the end the Elections Office spent only $220,000 on the verification and early prep work. Deputy Governor Franz Manderson revealed that, since it was a non-election year, the office had needed the $1.32 million above its 2019 budget of around $400,000 to prepare for the national vote.

In the Legislative Assembly on Monday, Manderson presented the details of the “exceptional circumstances” transactions for the Portfolio of the Civil Service (POCS) for 2019. He explained why the money was appropriated but did not say what had happened to the balance of around $1.1 million.

The referendum, which had been scheduled for 19 December last year, was stayed by the courts after a successful challenge by the Cruise Port Referendum campaigners, who organised the petition, over how government had gone about settling both the referendum question and date.

Manderson explained that money was spent on the verification process, which included manning the Elections Office to cope with walk-ins, verification at supermarkets and other locations, as well as staff going door-to-door. He said other work that started after the verification included early referendum training and logistical plans.

As 2019 was a non-election year, the usual budget of just over $407,821 represented a fraction of the sum needed to host the national vote. The DG said the 2017 General Election had cost $1.98 million, so the office had asked for another $1.32 million to cover the estimated cost of the whole referendum.

The projected costs of that were around $1,100,000, including postal ballots, mobile voting and general polling on referendum day if the vote had happened.

Manderson said that without the additional funding, the Elections Office would have been unable to meet its constitutional obligations, opening the office and the Cayman Islands Government to potential legal action for breach of law.

The premier has made it clear, however, that the referendum will not take place on general election day next year, so it is not clear what happened to the additional cash appropriated into the 2019 budget that has not been spent on election expenses. However, it may have plugged a hole in the PoCS budget created by an increase in the cost of health insurance for retired civil servants.

Manderson said the 2019 budget for Health Insurance for Civil Service Pensioners had been $22.5 million but the actual cost for 2019 was $27.4 million, which meant there was a budget shortfall of $4.9 million that had to be made up. The budget gap emerged as a result of an increase in retirees and people over the age of 60, as well as an increase in the premiums, in some cases by 34%. The average monthly invoice went from $1.7 million to $2.27 million, the DG revealed.

He explained that the PoCS was allocated additional supplementary funding for the increases in the health insurance premiums via a centralised reallocation managed by the Ministry of Finance. However, the amount of $3.57 million was insufficient, so another $1.35 million to cover the remaining shortfall was requested.

He did not say if the unspent cash allocated for the referendum would be used to fill this gap but stated that the exceptional circumstance transaction did not cause any non-compliance with the Principles of Responsible Financial Management.