Gaps remain in management of major projects

| 07/06/2022 | 33 Comments
John Gray High School campus (December 2021)

(CNS): In the first three months of 2022 the Cayman Islands Government spent more than CI$15.7 million on major capital projects and roads, but few of the recommendations about oversight of public developments made by the Office of the Auditor General more than five years ago have been implemented.

The Public Works Department is managing a number of active government capital projects, including the mental health facility, the John Gray High School campus, the main airport, preparations for the general terminal, the court building and the waste-management facility.

At a Public Accounts Committee hearing on 25 May, officials revealed that the PHD is either overseeing or coordinating another 50 smaller public projects. However, the gaps in the process and challenges that have led to time and cost overruns on major projects in the past are not necessarily being addressed.

Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson told PAC that the government process to manage and monitor spending on major capital projects needs work in a number of areas, while the acting chief officer in the infrastructure ministry, Tristan Hydes, and Acting PWD Director Troy Whorms explained some of the human resource challenges they have faced, all of which leave the oversight of major public spending vulnerable.

Accountant General Matthew Tibbetts told PAC that the lack of any national plan for infrastructure presented a challenge for the finance ministry with long-term management of investment in public projects because priorities change from administration to administration. This means that government accountants can only budget what has been, and what is expected to be, spent on major infrastructure projects for four-year periods.

When he appeared as a witness before PAC, Jefferson was asked about progress on recommendations made in a 2017 OAG report, which was a follow-up to an even older audit that outlined major problems with government’s management of its infrastructure projects. He admitted that a decade on, there were still issues surrounding the budget reporting on this capital expenditure.

“The amount of capital expenditure information in the annual budget process is limited,” he said. “It does not go much beyond the two-year horizon that we are now faced with… It does not give any indication of the day to day operational costs… That’s not in our budget documents at the moment.”

Jefferson explain that the ministry had begun drawing up a schedule that documents the budgeting and spending on major projects that cost more than $1 million, and that appeared for the first time in the government’s audited quarterly financial reports (See page 33). But he said it was only a starting point and more work was required to help government better manage the investment it makes in capital development.

He said that over time more information would be added as it is designed to give government better information about how much has already been spent on all of the projects. The area that need the most improvement was the estimated future costs of a given project and when work is likely to take place, he noted.

PAC also heard that the ministry is still in the process of developing a long-term investment plan but the political committee to draw up that plan in preparation for the next budget cycle has not yet been established.

“The ideal situation for a long-term capital investment plan would be to have a country plan overall that would guide the capital projects that we take on, as we would know where we are going as a country,” Tibbetts told PAC when asked about the delay in rolling out this plan.

“In the absence of a long-term country plan, we have to take an approach where we are doing it in four-year cycles for the elected government of the time,” he said, adding that these plans may or may not get taken forward by the following administration.

Tibbetts said the committee that would draw up a capital plan would have to be made up of politicians, though the ministry and the PHD were already working on a comprehensive list of projects that are underway and proposed plans that have been made or are in discussion.

See the PAC meeting on CIGTV below:


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Category: Government Administration, Government Finance, Politics

Comments (33)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Clearly the Deputy Governor has been failing to hold top executives in Government accountable for years, something needs to be done and it aint another pay raise for this “world class” civil service

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    • KM says:

      9:59. I think the civil service has improved leaps and bounds under the DG’ leadership. Years ago an audit like this would have been much worse.

      We must appreciate that no organisation is perfect. But we do expect improvements. I have seen the improvements first hand.

      Let’s give kudos when they are due. Instead of complaining all the time.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Financial controls, oversight, transparency? Seriously? How is anyone supposed to make millions of dollars round here?

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  3. Anonymous says:

    So…”we’re making it up as we go along”…..

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  4. Neverwannabeacivilservant says:

    World Class!.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    “recommendations made in a 2017 OAG report, which was a follow-up to an even older audit that outlined major problems with government’s management of its infrastructure projects. He admitted that a decade on, there were still issues surrounding the budget reporting on this capital expenditure.”

    In other words, the sh*t show continues, so stop bringing it up, nothing to see here folks?

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  6. Corruption is endemic says:

    At this point is anyone surprised.

    What many seem to consider a bug in the system is a feature to a chosen few that benefit.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Pwd has too many red tape Nd political friendships.. they do not have the experience to manage major projects.. the entire procurement process is flawed as all they do is churn out pages of gibberish with no real scope or coordination. They need people with experience and authority to go along with responsibility

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    • Anonymous says:

      The Procurement Law is written in such a way to ensure corruption is legitimized.

      WORLD CLASS LEGAL CORRUPTION REGIME AFTER REGIME.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Human resources challenges ! With a nearly billion dollar government budget and over 3000 civil servants in a country of 70000 people? Cry me a river. Or is it the problem in finding competent people when the incompetent are never held to account and the standard answer to any problem is to create a new department and hire more staff, rather than measure and reward success.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Competent people could be easily found – money will attract them. But they will be expats, highly educated, highly skilled in International Finances, but will not come cheap… And they will not tolerate the attitude of Cayman that expats are not welcome… They can go to Geneva, Dubai, NYC, etc… Their skill set is golden. Cayman is now viewed as being cheap and unwelcoming – you reap what you sow. Cayman is worldwide viewed as not an attractive locale for accounting, merely to park funds for other entities.

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      • Anonymous says:

        And the poor governance is overseen by the UK Government!

        The UK approves all of our corruption legitimizing laws and appoints all of our civil servants.

        This is another UK Government created mess.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Spot on.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The civil service is broken plus an expensive mess. They have the budget to fix what they deem is a priority. Leadership has failed Cayman badly all we get are more excuses and expensive mistakes. The buck stops at the top!

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  9. Anonymous says:

    Mr Jefferson ALWAYS has excuses for why this is not in place and that has not been done etc. It has been that way with him for 20 years now. A very pleasant smart gentleman but little in the way of get up and go.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Time for Franz Manderson Eric Bush Ken Jefferson including all other excuse makers that are over their heads to resign or retire.

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  10. Anonymous says:

    cig and the civil service….a rats nest of incompetence and failure.
    a poor reflection on the caymanian workforce.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The first sentence says it all. Their leadership only care about themselves.

      • Anonymous says:

        second sentance is a perfect summary of the local workforce….that cig is trying force on the private sector.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Not a peep about the reason for gaps….both heads of the PM office died suddenly (Jim Scott and then Peter Ranger). Until these fine gentlemen are replaced with qualified Project Managers, we will continue to see problems remaining on budget and on time.

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    • Chris Evans says:

      I didn’t know Peter but Jim was a good friend – his premature death was a sad day on a personal and professional level to friends and the country, as I’m sure Tristan would agree. I, for one, greatly miss him.

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    • Anonymous says:

      I say let Mr. Dart’s construction management company Decco run all government projects and then they will be of a super high quality, come in on time and below budget. Besides he has the best managers, estimators and procurement people in the construction field bar none and a select sub contract team that are the best, just look at the current projects they have flying along to a quick completion. Then we would not need to have all these people you all mention on our tax payroll nor would we have to worry about any of them.

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      • Anonymous says:

        So who you think runs government?

        Dart may runs Dart projects well, but that is for Dart.

        Dart and other developers controlling most MPs fight against any country policy plan as identified by Tibbetts, Jefferson, Whorms and Howard is urgently needed.

        Watch what Dart will make $$$ HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS from the waste contracts.

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        • Anonymous says:

          They should make money because look at all the work they have done. Just what have your kind ever done except complain?

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      • Anonymous says:

        I don’t like Mr. Dart. He takes everything he can and gives nothing.

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      • Anonymous says:

        He should just run the whole country then we would not need all these silly civil servants and elected officials collecting huge salaries for little work. Look how well the whole Dart organization runs. Love Mr Dart and company

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      • Anonymous says:

        You have obviously never worked for Decco. They re an unorganized disaster

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        • Anonymous says:

          They are the best and only employ the best. You must be one of those who could not handle having to work for your pay. Guess you found a job more to your liking!

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    • Anonymous says:

      I colleague of mine told me he had been hired to manage projects for a government department, his proposal was 100k, 10% to create the budget for the projects and 90% to manage them, it was around 2million. After producing the budget and after it was approved he was told public works were doing the works,they billed the department 240k and only procured one project which was worth about the same.

      He told me the problem with public works tenders is that they are fluffed up with admin and meetings which in his opinion double the cost of the works.Plus they hire people who have no clue of local practices and so waste vast amounts of government money in red tape instead of streamlining the process and keeping the management costs below 10%.

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