COVID contracts and spending under scrutiny
(CNS): The money government has spent on supplies to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic is being scrutinized by the Office of the Auditor General. Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, government has spent tens of millions of dollars managing the impact of the virus here, both directly and indirectly.
After questions were raised during Finance Committee about a cancelled order for lateral flow tests from a local company, Blue Water Medical Supplies, officials from the public spending watchdog confirmed they were conducting an audit in relation to spending on COVID supplies.
This is expected to include the tests that were ordered from Blue Water, which last month filed suit against the Cayman Islands Government, claiming that a confirmed order made in October for half a million COVID-19 Flowflex Rapid Antigen Tests was cancelled in breach of the contract.
While CNS understands that company is currently in talks with government to make good on the cancelled order, issues over the ordering of test kits remain, including questions over whether mistakes made and delays in the process led to government paying over the odds in some cases.
Finance Minister Chris Saunders also revealed during Finance Committee that both the attorney general and the auditor general were looking at the Blue Water case but said very little more about the situation and the pending lawsuit.
After former premier Alden McLaughlin asked about the situation and how government had found itself facing the lawsuit, Saunders confirmed that both the Health Services Authority and the Ministry of Education had ordered lateral flow tests separately and they did not go through a procurement process.
The education ministry’s order had gone through Cabinet because it was an exceptional circumstance, he said, describing the situation surrounding some COVID-related spending as a “limbo area” because a state of emergency was never declared.
He said that the attorney general and the auditor general are both looking at how, if circumstances such as this arise in the future, where there is no formal state of emergency but government still needs to act quickly, it can do so in the right way.
But despite further questioning from McLaughlin, it was still not clear why the order from Blue Water was cancelled and if government was going to make good on the confirmed order, worth around CI$1.2 million.
CNS contacted Blue Water and a spokesperson confirmed that discussions were underway between company executives and the government but that the situation was not fully resolved. The company also said that claims by the education minister that an order from rival company Crown Agents was cheaper that the Blue Water contract was “simply not true”.
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Category: Government Administration, Government oversight, Politics
The order was cancelled because a sitting MLA saw an opportunity to broker a deal personally and make a profit. When Blue Water threatened to sue, Gov honored the contract to keep this under wraps to avoid embarrassment to PACT. , who apparently were unaware this MLA had tried to broker this deal until after the fact.
Wow 10.23 just wow.
This smells of the old/reborn UDP way of conducting “what’s in this for me” business.
I wonder whoooo could that be.?
I hope the suspect is outed and charged, but I know they will protect their own and it will be swept under the carpet.
Yessa. UDP indeed. United Disastrous PACT.
Amazing how people can make this shit up..Just because you say it doesn’t mean it’s true..
Everyone says Vern (who i know – you can buzz out his name if you want CNS) was amazing from bringing in those 200k PCR tests.
In reality, he made most likley millions selling those to the Gov at 100% + markup when they were desperate and slapping the ask. Do i blame him for it, no, just business. But the gov spending during that time was so ridiculous.
Same with the ventilator – they overpaid absurdly.
IDK what she is trying to acheieve, opening a can of worms i dont think they want exposed.
Not sure how you arrived at this conclusion. My understanding of the events (as published in the news) was that Vern, through family contacts, was able to put CI Government in touch with a supplier of hard-to-get test kits. Nowhere does it mention him or anyone else acting as the middle-man and profiting from it in any way whatsoever.
He did broker a job out of the deal though….
I really don’t know the young man, so I googled him and found his LinkedIn profile.
https://ky.linkedin.com/in/vernie-coe-cert-hon-b14a7124
On the surface, it appears as if his present job is consistent with his education and experience. If you throw in what might be (superficially in your mind perhaps?) called benevolence and love of country, then hell yes, why is he able to rise on merit without people of your ilk approving his preferment?
He walked in to a position which didn’t previously exist and wasn’t advertised, quite conveniently right after he was able to get some test kits through a family member in Mexico. Make of it what you will but it’s pretty clear what really came about.
Nothing bad about the guy.
Im just making a point that GOV overspent absurdly.
Another example – the field hospital that was never used. 400K
It was literally a school gym with a few beds in it.
This government is a mess. how are people supposed to trust these clowns when they backtrack on simple agreements. complete foolishness.
This will open a can of Covid worms.
I understand the difference in price was negligible..Why didn’t they just order both? It’s not like we are not going to use them..
For the “Johnny-Come-Latelies”, local and otherwise – the Cayman Islands Govt has been dealing with Crown Agents for decades. I first heard of them term when I joined the public service in 1973. In the department where I worked, they provided a lot of stationery, hand stamps and other supplies. As far as I know, they supplied to all other UK territories as well and perhaps the UK civil service.
They are definitely not new to CIG!
And unlike Blue Water, they are a not for profit.
Wild guess here, but did the Minister driven order – the one that subverted normal procurement processes – perchance go to the private sector entity owned by certain prominent Caymanians, and not the not for profit that has worked with BOTC governments for decades?
Time for the annual $500,000,000 wage bill to be cut CIG, with a population of barely 70,000.
I’m sure these world class employees can find real private sector jobs. World class hahhahahaha
Good! I have no doubt that money was wasted and processes were circumvented.
Yes money was wasted , and the process was interfered with , by a certain minister.
He should man up and say what he did and why.
Sounds like incompetence or something else. Just saying. Tangle web!
#leggewasright
How much did the private jet cost? Whilst kids have no food to eat.
not sure there are any starving kids in cayman….quiet the opposite.
Are you having a laugh? There are kids sent to school here who rely on the lunch they get there. For an island with so much money swilling about, the extreme poverty that some are living in is disgusting.
There are because the parents shouldn’t be allowed children. Just like the lady who left her baby in the car.
15 @ 1:39pm – Clearly you don’t live in Cayman, troll? The private jet was donated by a local benefactor, who also consistently does very much to help local communities and charities. It was not a public expense!
Schooled!
Dart lol. Ya that costs the people of Cayman
That jet was not paid for by the Government, that was paid for by Dart, it was in the press conference at the time. And another donor paid for the test kits that were in it.
You do realize that is a stock(file) photo right?
CNS, please be more careful because right away people only see what they want to see and this is how misinformation grows widely, and lord know we don’t need anymore of that now.
CNS: We can only do so much. We can’t make people read the caption.
I can find a website for Crown Agents that is very informative but not Blue Water.
just audit the performance of the entire civil service during covid…
its world class, so what are people afraid of???
Hahaha.
For sure, with “covid” being the excuse for everything, including the usual tardiness in the public service, it will be the “go-to” excuse for EVERY single Government Dept. and SAGC for the next few years! “We had to spend more on covid protocols; covid caused staff shortages and impacted our productivity; covid slowed down our processes; covid caused paper shortages; because of covid we couldn’t get any ink cartridges for our printers; we couldn’t have our usual 5 strategy meetings a day because of covid; our CFO, the Deputy CFOs and the Acting Deputy CFOs were all out with covid….. and so on..!!
It’s a big club and you and I ain’t in it!
George Carlin.
Ministry of Education??? Says it all!