Civil service still failing to manage the people’s cash
(CNS): The auditor general has once again called out the public sector management on its continued failure to implement recommendations made by her office and the Public Accounts Committee for better management of the people’s money. In the latest report, which followed up on past findings going back as far as 2017, Sue Winspear said it was disappointing that they had still not addressed issues identified in some cases as long as seven years ago, such as a policy to properly manage duty concessions.
“I have assessed the Government’s progress with implementing the recommendations in the Major Capital Projects reports as limited,” Winspear said. She explained that while the Public Works Department has made some progress, the government has still not developed a long-term capital investment plan to help ensure that investment is affordable and the country’s long-term financial sustainability is maintained.
“The Ministry of Finance has still not developed a long-term capital investment plan despite a number of major capital projects underway or in the pipeline and the intention to borrow to pay for many of these,” she warned.
“We also recommended that the Government should ensure that it has specialist expertise to properly manage contracts for Public Private Partnerships. In March 2021, the government signed a waste management contract worth over half of a billion dollars without such expertise, threatening the likelihood of obtaining value for money from that contract,” the auditor general added.
Winspear said the government’s progress with implementing the recommendations in the Major Capital Projects report was poor and only three of 13 recommendations had been implemented.
Meanwhile, she also raised concerns about the failure of management to deal with the issues her office raised about customs, where only six out of 20 recommendations had been addressed.
“It is disappointing that the recommendation to strengthen project management of the ongoing IT project has not been implemented, and the latest estimated cost of the project is now $1.4 million against an original estimate of $277,000,” Winspear said.
Since 2015 her office has consistently recommended that the government develop a comprehensive concessions policy, but seven years on it is still giving tax breaks to developers. “Concessions continue to be inconsistently awarded and the underlying conditions, for example, employing Caymanians, are not being monitored so it is unclear if they are being met,” she said.
Winspear was a little kinder to the public servants in the education ministry than those in the finance ministry, as she said they had made good progress with her recommendations in the School Education report, despite the COVID pandemic.
“The Ministry of Education now records and monitors truancies, which has informed a policy to reduce truancy rates in public schools,” she said. “It has also developed a policy for identification, assessment and additional support for students with special education needs,” she said, though she noted the continued absence of an overarching education strategy.
“A clear, overall strategic direction is key to better educational outcomes for students. I strongly encourage the Ministry to finalise this as soon as possible,” she said.
In the face of yet another damning indictment of the situation relating to the management of the people’s money from Winspear’s office, Deputy Governor Franz Manderson said he welcomed the auditor general’s observations about the progress but a significant amount of work remains to be accomplished.
Manderson said he has tasked his office to improve the quality and timeliness of responses to the auditor general’s reports in general. He has also committed to the PAC to improve the timeliness of the submissions of government minutes for tabling in Parliament and to address any outstanding government minutes.
Charles Clifford, the director of Customs and Border Control, claimed his department had made good progress on the recommendations, despite the clear findings in Winspears updated report that it has not. Clifford said that the CBC’s Five Year Strategic Plan 2022 – 2026 transitioning to an Intelligence-Led Risk Management Culture would help with the implementation of the outstanding recommendations in the report.
Financial Secretary Ken Jefferson said the finance ministry will coordinate the publication of information on major capital expenditure in the government’s Quarterly Report.
“Major capital expenditure represents a significant portion of the government’s annual budget, and this will improve transparency and enhance accountability to the public. We are committed to continually improving the quality of financial information to support decision making at all levels of Government,” he said.
See the latest OAG’s report in the CNS Library.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Government Administration, Government oversight, Politics
The government makes laws but breaks the laws that they make, sad and should not be allowed, past due to hold the DG and Ch officers accountable or be fired.
A total joke. I know civil servants who want to do work but don’t have any to do because of the bottlenecks caused by their managers, and their colleagues pressure them to do less because they are making the rest of them look bad.
When the culture of an organisation is to do as little as possible as inefficiently as possible without any accountability whatsoever this is exactly what you get
Franz has to look at DVDL! Our company deals with them on a weekly basis. Now the Jason has left there, it’s difficult to get ahold of anyone who can give you proper guidance!!!
How long since they’ve been able to print a driver’s license?
OMG, I miss being able to call Jason and he actually answering his phone!! it’s torture to have to get ahold of anyone now. WHY JASON…WHY!?!?!?!
You all hounding Franzie. Remember he pumped up the salaries by 16% for the big wigs like the Governor, Alden and himself last January, flat dab in the middle of COVID.
He soon have in 2 years at the $225K a year he making so his pension will be worked out on that salary and he gone clear.
Yes and the sky is blue.
Never underestimate the political power of the Civil Service as Cayman’s largest voting block and only real trade union. Meaningful reform is simply not in the interests of those who benefit from keeping things as they are.
Majority, if not all competent Caymanians are not in the civil service.
And in other New News it is rumoured that the Wright brothers were able to fly in a flying machine.
I regret to say direct rule is the only answer.
We are not capable ourselves to clean up the public service quagmire.
We need a lot of help.
Listen here bloke. You are clearly not a Caymanian. No one calls them self big bobo. That just sounds like cultural appropriation and proves you’ve never been around any real Caymanians.
Please take your racist direct rule idea and go back home where you can be directly ruled by bumbling, lying, corrupt, incompetent and arrogant Boris and club.
Enjoy your classist and racist society- but because you’re here that’s probably a clear indication you couldn’t hack it.
1.37pm I would love to hear how you feel about McKeeva.
In the last couple of months I’ve waited over a month for a building inspection, 3 hours at dvdl to register a truck, 2 weeks for a shipment to clear customs and 2 months and god knows how many more months to process a wp application. How can almost 7000 people achieve so little?
It really must take a concerted and agreed upon approach to so absolutely nothing
Never met Sue Winspear but that woman must go into her office every day and bang her head on the desk having to deal with some of the people in the CS.
My bet is she doesn’t have a desk. It is held up in customs.
Haha. We are waiting for an IKEA table ordered in December to clear customs.
You think I was joking?
She doesn’t need a desk, she’s got a laptop
We all have a laptop. Anything to escape
Winspear for Premier!
It’s quite obvious what this weak enabler has done here absolutely nothing. Yet talking pure foolishness about reforming the civil service yet handing out titles and accolades to the most inept and incompetent clique ever to set foot in Government. Who have allowed corruption to flourish and political and lodge nepotism to increase tenfold inside and outside the civil service. The level of intimidation by the corrupt Is at the highest it has ever been. Which is match only by the level of impunity they are operating at !
Maybe it’s because Franz Manderson is still head of the Civil Service, and no comfortable Department Heads are going to be fired for failure and non-compliance?
They are not being asked to stop doing their job, they are being asked to do their job. Services cannot be functioning well without some of these fundamentals being in place.
03 @ 7:43 am – Exactly!! For the BIG salaries paid to the Deputy Governor, Deputy Deputy Governor, Chief Officers, Acting Chief Officers, Deputy Chief Officers, Acting Deputy Chief Officers, etc….who are respectively the “leaders” of the Civil Service and each individual Government department, their jobs INCLUDE applying good governance practices at ALL TIMES!
Getting them to meet that requirement should NOT be an extra measure by the Auditor General, PAC or anyone else! It IS their JOB.
But DG Franzie has them believing that it’s “going the extra mile” just to deliver what they’re already being very well PAID for!!
So, when they actually answer a phone call instead of letting it go to voicemail, or actually answer a customer’s email in a timely manner, they get an award!!!
The majority of posts within the civil service simply exist to provide gainful (I use that term advisedly) employment for persons who otherwise aren’t capable or refuse to work in other sectors. There is no appetite for rationalization or efficiency because ultimately this involves getting rid of jobs. Conversely the ongoing creation of myriad roles goes on unabated and only a funding crisis could result in meaningful change. Until that point the merry go round continues with private sector revenue propping up the bloated bureaucracy and the over promotion of woefully inept individuals into senior posts resulting in the shambolic decision making that goes on across government.
Paying three times for non-delivered services and goods is uniquely Caymanian, and a product of the social workfare apparatus, where final verification is missing. The acceptance of failing workflow culture infects many other private sector industries as well, amplifying the cost of living – each time paying duty adjusted 20-25% premium over onshore. No consumer protections or recourse from deficiencies in public service OR private enterprise.
And too many of the jobs exist to give employment to foreign nationals. We have allowed ourselves to become a social welfare program, not only for Cayman, but also for Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados. It is a form of corruption, and is destroying us.
The very reason why every government service has declined.
The standards we have upheld for CIG for decades have been foolishly relaxed and conveniently altered to let foreigners beat gums and spell out nonsense to us to justify their incompetence and huge salaries, many do not provide value for.
The civil service has bent over backwards to accomodate and enable below-par work permit holders and government contractors to collect massive paychecks in high positions and delegate the very work they are being paid to do, take all the credit, and shove work down the org chart to local civil servants.
I have never seen lazier people in my life than foreigners in a government office job or on a government contract.
Those “foreign nationals”
Well said, I just think it’s a bumbling bobos club who keep hiring more of their bumbling bobos.
UNQUESTIONALLY!
I bet you also say “irregardless” .
All the DG interested in is his 5K run…smh. Does he know people lost their jobs, loosing their homes, families grieving from the loss of loved ones and this is 5K run is on the top of his agenda.
The main problem is that the civil service is tasked with delivery of ribbon-cutting events for the politician of the day with no strategy or plan for Cayman. For example, the East West arterial, or Kenneth’s tourism training facility. Nothing is ever backed up by actual thought in Cayman, only the whims of the under qualified.
Congrats to Mr.Troy and the team at PWD for their success in the management practices that are being noted.
Same old, same old! Good Auditor Gens do their jobs and finally get frustrated and find greener pastures, PA Committees “try” to get accountability but satisfy with lies and blubbers, we continue to cuss and DG Franzie continues to smile like the Cheshire Cat! Another 5k and monthly award ceremony and all is great in the World-Ass CS!
How and when does accountability culture and practice set in??!!
The band played on…!!
11:56. Here is what the DG said in his press release issued on Tuesday.
In total, the three reports included 54 recommendations, of which only one was not accepted. Of these, 20 have been implemented, and a further 26 have been partly implemented or are in progress. Only seven have been identified as not having made any progress.
I am not surprised that all recommendations have not been implemented. does anyone recall what happened during the pass 2 years. Maybe our DG and his team should have focused on implementing these recommendations rather than managing the public service response to the pandemic. Maybe no one would be alive to read the nice shiny report.
Ungrateful souls.
11;56. My goodness you sound like you are going to blow a fuse. Clam down.
I predict that by the end of the year this will no longer be a sore issue and the Auditor General will follow the PAC lead and give civil servants awards for outstanding performance.
In 1980, someone who saw the public service from the perspective of having devoted over 35 years to it (when it was respectable), who had experienced the first term of the late 70s political changes and was about to retire from a senior position in a (then) fundamental department, remarked to some much younger persons “I feel sorry for your generation of Cayman, it will be run by morons”.
Prophetic words!
Manderson needs to go.
Plain and simple the rot is deep and the change needs to start at the top.
Enough of this.
Why does immigration no longer refund the Repatriation Fee? What does CIG do with these funds? CIG never used these funds to repatriate expats during Covid lockdown
State sponsored fraud and theft. Exactly the same with the environmental protection fund. Our government and civil service appear to have forgotten they rule by consent. Damn them. They are acting like dishonest, underhanded bastards. They appear to lack integrity and see nothing wrong with their actions. This is not sustainable.
Quote, “They are acting like dishonest, underhanded bastards.”
Errrr…..ahhhhhh … I don’t believe they are acting!
It appears that no one really wants to have a transparent system or process of assessing requests for concessions or tracking terms of any potential agreements. Unfortunately, it has been this way for the last twenty plus years.
There is sufficient evidence to support this preposition in the public domain which includes the former Minster of Planning in the previous administration whilst replying to the then Leader the of Opposition in Parliament. The former minister publicly stated that development agreements were confidential agreements and commercially sensitive information that could not be shared not even in Parliament where the rules of Parliamentary Privilege exists.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2020/06/development-deals-to-remain-secret/
How could this be accepted when our elected representatives are negotiating terms and potentially surrendering tens of millions and hundreds of millions in current and future CIG revenues at a time the country is enjoying a development boom?!?!
Key questions to be asked:
What is the Cayman Islands Government getting in return by granting concessions? The financial, economic, local employment, environmental and social impacts must be considered etc.
How many locals will benefit from the initiative pre and post construction?
Does the deal/project represent value for money?
How is that measured objectively?
How will Government track and enforce terms of the agreement?
It is important to note that if the For Cayman Investment Alliance Deal “FCIA” renamed the NRA Agreement are public documents there must be no exceptions. Therefore, all deals that have received concessions over the last twelve years at a minimum or that are being negotiated must now be made public. That is how the principles of accountability and transparency are intended to serve the best interests of any government and these islands.
Concessions are typically given to business associates of senior officials including Public Officials, where there is a pecuniary interest in the project, political donors to campaigns, financial sponsors and those persons or business interests that essentially own and control our elected MP’s.
If the authorities want to expose and understand how decisions have been made regarding the negotiations and granting of concessions just “Follow the money.”
Regards
Johann Moxam
I was with you up until “hundreds of millions”. Lol.
Their annual payroll is $500 million
The NRA deal shows that DART got at leat $30mln in duty waivers, plus break from hotel tax, prime development land transfers totalling hundreds of acres, with stamp duty waivers. We also know from former Financial gatekeeper Roy, that no CIG agency is officiating that $30mln accrual, let alone the other categorised benefits and obligations. We also have a half dozen other developers with similar deals and waivers, so yeah, 9-figures is definitely within estimation range. But we don’t know because the PPM have redacted the contract files.
30m for Dart… long,long way to go to “hundreds of millions” but sure you froth about made up numbers.
Auditor General says the dump contract is worth $500 million alone. Still laughing?
I’m laughing at you thinking the dump deal is “surrendering revenue” yes.
The concessions that are supposedly given to “whoever gets the o.k. to build” are probably divided between the “givers” and “receivers”. That way they both get the free money. The public loses.. What a racket!
Well Done Alden The Great, with your lackey accountant Roy “No Accountability” McT as Finance Minister, and Dwayne signing the dump contract without the technical expertise. Great job fellas. Certainly deserves a few statues in the town square, no?
Let’s see if the PaCT government will approve a concessions policy.
Not sure about concessions but appears travel will be the same. Saw a picture with Minister Jay, the Speaker Mac, Kathy and Issac and understand that Tristan Hydes and Alric Lindsay went on a little jaunt over to Spain as soon as the Covid restrictions were eased a bit. Would love to see what that trip cost as well as what it achieved. Maybe some political strategy and we will see some changes soon.
Some Civil Servants work extremely hard. What they need to do is weed out the inefficiencies and archaic mindsets, including ineffective senior managers, and hold people to account.
Done a good job at the Port Authority. Long way to go to weed out the nepotism…who want’s to get busy with that though?
Port Authority was saved by Joey Wood, who imposed hiring and financial controls to run the Port like a business . He also insisted that all staff worked for their money, a novel concept , so they all ran to complain to their Political connections.
7000 people employed in the public sector in Cayman. Seven thousand! It’s absolutely mind blowing how inefficient they are and how little they achieve at such a snail’s pace.
Franz Manderson as the Deputy Governor with responsibility as head of the civil service has to offer real explanations not excuses and give a timeline to address these core issues or resign or be fired.
Those are the only options available. Enough is enough.
It’s so predictable ..it’s almost laughable…
But the civil servants are the ones laughing at the private sector who are crippled with fees to support this nonsense.
Chamber of commerce needs to petition the UK asap…
Chamber of Commerce IS the government!
Unfortunately.
Franz needs to go….
Do not forget about Eric Tristan Stran Jennifer Cacho they are all just as bad and need to go too
12:06 PM,Especially the four of them, some others too, but those four should be the first to go.
Another glorious world class example of incompetence and failure…
Any comment Mr governor?
Same comments from CIG… how many years?
Should have just stopped the headline after the first four words.
Bring in more expats to clean up this mess – come on!!!
Umm, the civil service is run and controlled by expats. They are not North American, European, or British, but they are expats.
Jamaicans. Let us not beat around the bush.
What????
Many of the problems we have in Cayman can directly be traced back to the endless greed, corruption and incompetence that low caliber foreigners continue to bring here, never leave, and refuse to come up to par.
Many expats are making the very mess that now needs to be cleaned up and your solution is to bring more of them??? Sweep before you mop.
Say it like it is.
I pity you. The DG did take responsibility. Can’t you read good?
It would seem to me that the civil service is being asked to stop what they are doing and implement the auditor general recommendations. I wonder how private sector entities would deal with this. Oh right they will hire more staff and raise prices. But the civil service can’t do that. Imagine if we had to pay the true cost of a driving license or a domestic helper work permit.
Read Mr Manderson full press release and you will get the full picture. Be careful hearing one side of the story.
Commenters like those @ 02/ 7:11 & 7:14 pm are exactly the problem with the Civil Service. Perhaps those commenters are civil servants – a part of the problem. They are so immersed in the mess that they really can’t see the truth. If they are on the outside, they must be connected or just plain oblivious.
Franz’ response is nothing but excuses and empty promises….again and again. Good leaders make positive changes, which are seen! To date there are no visible positive changes to the CS from the public service perspective!
Simply put, Franz Manderson is by now, a root part of the entire problem. He is satisfied with and boasts about mediocrity!!
World Ass Franzie!!
At this point, we might as well give CI over to a government overseen by Dart. At least he won’t waste any time telling us how much he cares.
Who de Raz told them to waste 20million$$ of public funds to buy beach sand for private hotels who don’t welcome locals??!
Just shut it down. Take each department and give it to a major accounting firm to operate. Reward them based on increased efficiencies. Our civil service has become a wasteful scam, that is bankrupting us.
It would be useful to get some feedback from the head of the Civil Service on exactly why the long outstanding recommendations have not been implemented. If there is no valid reason then I would expect there to be some accountability for the failure to implement the recommendations.
Remember that E&Y “consultation” of the ministry of education a few years ago? No? Just as well…
But in recent times they sure managed to vote themselves big raises and vanity projects all over the world.
but not started on the bypass road yet!
The point of the story is the mis-management of public spending and you want them to start a bypass! It would be far better to take the money for the bypass (to mitigate an environmental disaster), the money for the gt project, the money from concessions and the money used to buy land for roads and pump that into creating economic centres in the outer districts. What the hell happened to the Go East initiative? This means that the people don’t need to travel west to work to put food on the table. Fix that problem don’t build a friggin multi-million dollar road for 1602 voters and add a whole bunch more cars onto the road. Use the water taxi!
So long as there is a complete absence of accountability for which Mr Manderson must take full responsibilty (he leads by example?), this situation will never change. The Civil Service should be re-named the Civil Disservice to more accurately describe the job it does.
Civil servants think they can manage multi million dollar developments , just because they get paid so much. Look at what they did with the schools projects.
Now retired with fat pensions and benefits and no accountability.
Does the Governor and Deputy Governor mean that that all staff will be held accountable for performance or lack thereof issues including CS senior management and Chief Officer Eric Bush given the recent Auditor General’s report where it states laws were broken?
The report is more evidence which highlights how the civil service has lost its way. Chief Officers and select senior staff now operate like politicians and their affiliation is to elected politicians or parties not what is objective and best for the civil service.
Eric Bush signed the contracts and allegedly broke several laws. He may have been instructed or allowed to do so but the accused and his accessory are CO Bush and DG Manderson. The buck stops at the top right?
The key question is what did the Governor know and when did he sign off on the course of action that contributed to CO Bush to breaching the laws as stated in the Auditor General’s report?
That rabbit hole gets deeper by the minute.
https://cnslibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/OAG-report-Dubai-Expo-and-CI-Overseas-Offices-Examination-of-Potential-Breaches-of-Legislation-Nov-2021.pdf
Franz is a waste of space.
It’s disgraceful that he is one of us – Caymanians.
DG is one of us, as a Caymanian, but he is a “Colonist” a heart.
A likable Colonialist, but still a Colonist.
Your Excellency
You want to fix the civil service? It desperately needs dramatic change and accountability. Much of what is transpiring is quite possibly criminal. There is no indication of improvement. In fact it has been deteriorating for many years. There are many stars in the civil service. Cayman is blessed to have them, but their task is thankless and the burden they bear is much too much. Their efforts are drowned out by the overwhelming cacophony of incompetence and nepotism that plague too many aspects of our governance.
I sincerely hope reform is indeed a priority. We have been promised much by persons in government, but too often our experience is that promises for change are designed and intended to placate. Cayman cannot afford, literally and figuratively, for the status quo to continue. No-one should be spared the light that must be shone in all corners.
One of the issues appears to be that the civil service is exempt from the immigration law. Why is that? The private sector has to prove it is making every effort to employ Caymanians. It has to provide ongoing efforts to train and mentor Caymanians, and advance them as far and as quickly as their talent, effort and ability can take them. Businesses have to recruit from a diverse range of foreign nationalities to maintain a demographic balance in businesses and in the community. The children of private sector expatriates have to attend private school. Private sector employees have to apply for PR or face rollover. Private sector employees and their families have to contribute to their pensions, and have private health insurance.
The failure to have the public sector abide by the same rules that the private sector has to follow has opened the systems to opacity and abuse. If the civil service had to jump the same hurdles that the private sector, who are paying for it all, must face, then do we really believe the lack of responsiveness and lack of accountability could continue? Of course not.
Apply the immigration law to all but a few key civil service positions, and many of the problems we face would disappear. Let them have 5 year work permits, but make them experience what it is like to be a “user” of their own services. That would force much improvement, overnight. It also makes sense, and is fair.