OAG finds pre-election abuse of public cash

| 21/10/2022 | 107 Comments
Joey Hew, then infrastructure minister, just before the elections with NRA equipment

(CNS): The Office of the Auditor General noted an “unusual spike” in spending by the National Roads Authority during the two months before the 2021 General Election. More than $11 million was spent between the announcement of the early election and the day of the vote, Auditor General Sue Winspear and her team found during an audit of the NRA, and she said this could indicate political abuse of public funds during the election campaign. Expenditure in those eight weeks amounted to 88% of the road budget for the first four months of 2021.

“The NRA is susceptible to political interference whereby, to gain political benefit, politicians with influence over its operations may determine when and where road infrastructure projects can be undertaken,” Winspear wrote in her latest report on the current state of government’s reporting on public finances. “I noted that there is no framework governing road construction services for the executive asset construction; this makes the NRA susceptible to political abuse.”

This was not the first time that a PPM-led administration had upped its spending on roads prior to elections. Winspear said that during the course of the NRA audit her team looked at the previous pre-election period in 2017 and noted a surge in road construction spending then as well.

During 2021 her office also carried out a review of the Dart dump deal, which is expected to be published shortly, Winspear said. That was one of two pieces of work by auditors this year raising concerns about government spending and commitments to spending during the election campaign period in 2021.

Winspear pointed out that after four years of negotiations, the contract for the Integrated Solid Waste Management System, now known as ReGen, was signed by the PPM-led administration less than three weeks before the election.

“This contract committed the Government to spending a significant amount of money over the following 25 years,” she said. “The contract was to reach financial close by 30 September 2021, but, as a result of the election, a new Government had been formed by then. The new Government has since revisited the signed contract, and the conclusion of the contract was extended to October 2022.”

A second report, which has still not been published but was reported on widely after CNS obtained a copy, covered the controversial move by the previous administration to begin the work on opening overseas offices and committed Cayman to attend the Dubai Expo, all after the election had been announced.

While Winspear has come into conflict with the civil service management over this report, which made for uncomfortable reading for senior civil servants, she has stood by her findings. She said the Expo contractual commitment and the various related new employee contracts entered into appeared to be binding on the new government.

Between 10 February and 20 April 2021, what was then the Ministry of International Trade, Investment, Aviation and Marine Affairs held by then premier Alden McLaughlin and headed up by Chief Officer Eric Bush, signed employment contracts with the commissioner of the Expo and five staff members of overseas offices. As a result, the new government was committed to over $6 million in potential costs even though it had different policy objectives.

Winspear has raised concerns that there is no formal guidance on this issue. However, “one would expect that the responsible minister should be briefed as soon as possible after taking office”, she said, as some employment contracts for overseas offices’ staff were not signed until after the election.

“Signing these contracts commits the Government to ongoing new expenditure and so it is reasonable to expect that the minister should have been briefed before this happened to afford the new Government an opportunity to amend the policy direction if required,” Winspear wrote in the report.

“The purpose of the civil service is to remain politically neutral but serve the Government of the day. International best practice would be to avoid introducing new policies, signing major new procurement contracts and undertaking any novel and contentious spending, including staff appointments to newly created posts during the period between the day an election is called and the day of the election itself.”

Winspear has called on the government to adopt a comprehensive pre-election policy and set of protocols to guide the conduct of the civil service before, during and immediately after an election.

“This policy could set out restrictions on the use of public resources and the activities of civil servants and ministers in the period between an election being called and the election itself, and it could also guide operations immediately after the election,” Winspear has recommended. “The policy should also clarify to existing ministers that they may not initiate new policies, new projects or spending once an election has been called to ensure that the electoral process remains fair and avoid the risk of biasing the voting population,” she added.

Since the report was leaked, Deputy Governor Franz Manderson has confirmed that a formal policy entitled ‘Period of Election Sensitivity’ has been developed. In his response to the report on this specific issue, he said that policy had recently been supported in Cabinet. 

“This policy is intended to provide clear information about how civil servants and ministers should conduct government business once an election has been called,” he said.


Share your vote!


How do you feel after reading this?
  • Fascinated
  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Bored
  • Afraid
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: , , , , , ,

Category: 2021 General Elections, Government oversight, Policy, Politics

Comments (107)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    another glorious day for the civil service

    8
    2
  2. JTB says:

    Well colour me shocked.

    Next thing we know they’ll be finding bear shit in the woods, and catholics in the Vatican.

    18
  3. Anonymous says:

    So was third world, is third world and will always be third world. At least the Caymanian half of the island and it’s not gonna change in this lifetime. Can’t stop progress but you can slow it down.

    5
    4
  4. Anonymous says:

    Mind you, Jay probably spent twice that in his first three months in office on roads in North Side alone.

    20
    3
  5. Anonymous says:

    Marbel drive looking criss boy. Shiny new black top.

    15
    2
  6. Anonymous says:

    “…political abuse of public funds during the election campaign…” Oh horrors, don’t say it is true! Not possible in the ethical, righteous, moral Cayman Islands. Yea, that is an old song, well heard and accepted. Political abuse from the Cayman electorate is EXPECTED! It is very sad that our electorate is so uneducated and uninformed of their candidates ethics; as well as very few ethical, educated Caymanians running for office. Poor choices; poor ethics; poor results for elected Ministers. This is what we have, this is what we get.

    PLEASE YOUNGER CAYMANIANS – Get educated, study, build ethical networks, don’t leave, get professional experience, then run for office – – – Save your country from those in the past who were not educated, not ethical, not moral, are not serving in the best interests of Caymanians… WE NEED YOU!

    19
    2
    • Anonymous says:

      5.41 Yes ” Save your country from those in the past who were not educated, not ethical, not moral, are not serving in the best interests of Caymanians” Save us from people like you who long for the return of colonial days of long ago.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Well then, can the road in front of Cayman Water get fixed PLEASE???
    There’s a whole bunch of new voters who just moved into the area with all the new townhouses that were recently built so good opportunity Andre to get back into power…

    13
    1
  8. Anonymous says:

    There is no democracy in Cayman.

    17
    6
  9. Anonymous says:

    And one wonders why the chairman of the NRA Board just resigned?

    22
    7
  10. N says:

    The DG creating a “policy” is not going to stop this or guide anyone to make sound ethical decisions! Laws with teeth and requisite consistent enforcement needs to occur!

    18
    1
    • Anonymous says:

      The DG talks and makes promises that aren’t worth the paper it is written on. He will not enforce anything against persons or parties he finds favor with his track record proves it. He needs to understand the problems and lack of neutrality in the service increased dramatically under his poor management.

      13
      1
  11. Elvis says:

    Well its less obvious than stoves and washing machines i guess

    21
    6
  12. anonymous says:

    this OAG is a wizard – she is highlighting all these discrepancies which we would never know about – Good on her and her office. At last some accountability ………..even if nothing comes of it!! But at least we know.

    41
    3
    • Anonymous says:

      3.07 So you didn’t know until now that the road works was happening just before election. Wow.

  13. Anonymous says:

    Do you think these politically motivated NRA road enhancement activities that take place before elections just stop with roads?
    What about the more direct favours given to constituents such as new appliances, fixing roofs and personal driveways, a free trip to Miami on Cayman Airways etc etc. All these things and many more have been promised to constituents for their vote and it has been going on for a long long time since to 70’s!

    Have you ever heard of a politician being prosecuted for bribing a constituent for their vote? This corruption Will continue on until the law gets some teeth and politicians are prosecuted for “doing favours” with taxpayer money to get votes..

    23
    2
  14. Anonymous says:

    At least these were public roads. Remember Ju Ju’s private parking lot and driveway paving exercise? Nothing happened then either. And nothing – nothing – will happen this time either.

    38
  15. Anonymous says:

    What new about this? Am 60+, this happened ever since and we never see a politician for four years, they never knows we exist until then , don’t know about you but I always thought this was normal.

    17
  16. Anonymous says:

    Yet JuJu is a member of the PACT government. Unna memory short boy. Or selective.

    http://archive.caymannewsservice.com/2012/05/23/private-brac-paving-illegal/

    17
    3
  17. Anonymous says:

    Frankly, I was happy to get my road fixed by any means possible. I do not think the NRA would ever have done it on their own. Be careful what you wish for. Put in bureaucracy=get nothing done.

    10
    6
  18. Anonymous says:

    I remember many years ago when the NRA, presumably at the behest of the incumbent government, paved South Church Street up to the driveway of an opposition politician, skipped it, and then carried on after. As a previous poster has said, you just laughed…..

    15
    1
  19. Anonymous says:

    I for one am grateful, my road was horrid and subject to severe flooding. If they paved roads that didn’t need paving then I’d have a problem but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Based on the election results this didn’t have an impact as the PPM lost the Government anyway.

    18
    4
  20. Anonymous says:

    No policy no foul

    8
    6
  21. Anonymous says:

    A certain politician had private driveways paved. We did nothing about that either.

    19
    1
    • Anonymous says:

      And exported all the government paving equipment to Cayman Brac, meaning all the Grand Cayman work had to be outsourced to a private company, as I recall.

      22
  22. Anonymous says:

    There is nothing wrong with trying to complete ongoing projects before an election. The PACT government cant even complete the programs after 2 years – much less start anything new – except give handouts to their supporters from taxpayers funds.

    25
    44
    • Anonymous says:

      That’s just not true. If you think it is, where are the bike lanes from 2015?

      11
      2
    • Anonymous says:

      I remember years ago when the PPM complained bitterly about the UDP government undertaking several infrastructure projects before an election. Alden said there could be an earthquake with all the groundbreaking going on. The truth is, the PPM was right back then: a government shouldn’t commence infrastructure projects right before an election and, should they lose power in the election, straddle the next government with a project that might not be their priority. Whataboutism isn’t the correct response here; just because something has been done many times before, doesn’t make it right now. The auditor general is correct to draw attention to this practice. If Cayman is to mature responsibly, this stuff needs to stop.

      15
      2
    • Anonymous says:

      At least we know where the money was spent!,

      6
      2
    • Anonymous says:

      Sorry but CNS is not saying anything about PPM stealing any money. And using our public funds to build or fix public roads is not stealing. So sorry you misunderstood.

  23. Anonymous says:

    And what about the Civil Servants in Joey’s old ministry, that was too willing to do his bidding? Will there be accountability Franz??? Or will there be another policy?

    43
    8
    • Anonymous says:

      You obviously don’t know how the Law and Govt work. Ministers control capital spending within the budget, which includes roads , and the civil servants are not there to make policy but implement that of the Ministers and Cabinet. Furthermore, Chief Officers have no direct role with Public Authorities like the NRA.

  24. Anonymous says:

    Road improvement is an implicitly acknowledged electoral tool in Cayman. I’ve lived here for 45 years and it has always been a given that roads are improved by sitting governments immediately before elections. It’s just one example of the endemic political corruption in these islands. Everyone knows it happens, and everyone just smiles and shrugs.

    A test of how strong political influence is in this area is to suggest that road improvement projects are taken out of the hands of politicians and placed in those of an independent statutory authority, and then stand back and listen to the squeals of indignation from politicians. It’ll never happen.

    53
    6
    • A Blacker Kettle Over There says:

      Same political corruption happens in every, other country, including yours. We expose it here most times as it’s harder to cover up being a smaller place. Can’t say the same for larger, more corrupt countries.

      So, your 45 years with seeing quick road works getting done prior to election time is correct, every government bodies in charge, elected and certain big shot ones at least, they pushed for road and other infrastructure works to get underway (looking busy as we say) with the “let’s get it done before they vote us out for not getting it done in their area!”

      7
      1
  25. SKEPTICAL says:

    What exactly is Hew supposed to be doing in this ludicrous pose – pretending to do some surveying – or have his photo taken with a Theodolite………

    32
    8
    • Anonymous says:

      I’m going to say neither 2:19. The theodolite are his crutches and is he working ? no, he’s obviously documenting a steam roller find during a treasure hunt. Apparently next in the list that day was a dump contract which he couldn’t find

      22
      6
    • Anonymous says:

      Joey has an injured left leg and is holding crutches with his left hand. He’s just taking a picture and, definitely, is not working.

      4
      1
  26. 100% Caymanian says:

    This has been going on for years welcome to Cayman if you don’t fix my road I not going to vote for you.

    27
    3
  27. Anonymous says:

    This isn’t limited to the PPM administration, the last 6 months before every election going back to the UDP days, it is a feverish to pave roads

    39
    4
    • Anonymous says:

      The UDP perfected much of the political corruption that has been going on for years. Additionally, I realise the report is limited to a specific period. Still, it is almost laughable that the PPM is being singled out for political abuse of public funds with respect to Public Works. Many other governments deserve to share the podium for this title. This is probably one of the easiest the OAG has prepared as the abuse is obvious, and expected by the public.

      4
      5
  28. Caymanian says:

    People acting like this is a new thing. I bet EVERY SINGLE GOVERNMENT did this. I recall so much activity going into elections every election.

    35
    4
  29. Anonymous says:

    “The purpose of the civil service is to remain politically neutral but serve the Government of the day. International best practice would be to avoid introducing new policies, signing major new procurement contracts and undertaking any novel and contentious spending, including staff appointments to newly created posts during the period between the day an election is called and the day of the election itself.”

    Winspear has called on the government to adopt a comprehensive pre-election policy and set of protocols to guide the conduct of the civil service before, during and immediately after an election.

    Winspear should be promoted to Deputy Governor or rewarded with a five year contract renewal. Instead the Governor and Deputy Governor want her gone promptly as she exposes too much of the failings and lack of accountability within Franz’s world class civil service.

    51
    5
  30. UnCivil Servant says:

    The modern day civil service is anything but politically neutral. That is a major problem and something DG Manderson continues to ignore as he protects the incompetence of his hand picked senior leadership team.

    41
    3
  31. Sunrise says:

    I am sure that her findings is correct, however, this sort of vote buying has been going on for a while, beginning in the late 70’s and continuing until present!! Why can’t a law be implemented by the people, through a referendum, that anyone abusing these privileges, be accountable in a court of law!! Also, it will reduce government spending, which Mr. Saunders, is so concerned about. Corruption at it’s best!!!

    33
    4
    • Anonymous says:

      What about paying people $40,000 not to run against certain MPs, so that they can get elected?

      Whether or not that is illegal, even if it is not, it might surprise people who did that last time around.

    • Anonymous says:

      Really now. Exactly what is wrong with using our money to fix our roads? Methinks the reason some of you are squealing is because you didn’t get a slice of the pie.
      The timing might be inconvenient to some because they claim it can buy a politician votes; however as can be seen by the majority of comments on here it can also cost you votes.

      2
      4
    • Anonymous says:

      Are you saying that fixing your road is vote buying and is wrong if it is done in last month before an election. I guess if they fix it 3 months bfore an election you would say thats all ok , no corruption there? Wow.

      2
      2
  32. Anonymous says:

    The Picture speaks a thousand words…poor lil Joey, victim of Alden’s PPM propaganda machine. What a waste of human talent..

    18
    14
  33. Anonymous says:

    The whole bunch of ’em, from both sides, are just one big banana republic clown show. 🙄

    28
    5
    • Anonymous says:

      Clown show sure. Bet youre one of the clowns making it big right here and never want to return to where you were.

  34. Anonymous says:

    PPM Roads Policy…It’s hard to believe that they still believe that Caymanians are so gullible..

    Spending our freaking money like it’s going out of style to ensure they get elected again because they could never win on their past performance.

    They should be ashamed of themselves but it seems like shame is something they no longer possess.

    18
    11
    • Anonymous says:

      Let’s add the UDP and older, previously banded together governments/politicians that did the same thing, with some being guilty of even worse corruption. They’re much too old now to chase down and grill about or they are dead. What ya gonna do? 🤷🏽‍♂️

    • Caymanian says:

      You do realise this has happened in EVERY SINGLE ELECTION CYCLE FOR LIKE 100 YEARS NOW!!! RIGHT!!!

      You wanna talk about something, talk about the containers in West Bay with fridges and stoves being handed out like candy at holloween.

      Or how about the politicians giving away fill or $s for votes.

      This last minute budget spend has always happened and there can even be legitimate sounding and possible reasonable explanations because CIG operates by budgets and if you are given lets say 1 million and you only spend 800k then your budget will shrink next year. The old saying of “you don’t use it you lose it” is real. So there is always a flurry of activity near end of year and near elections.

      5
      2
  35. Anonymous says:

    All roads lead to PPM….

    17
    8
  36. Anonymous says:

    I am shocked…

    -_-

    11
    6
  37. Anonymous says:

    The civil service is complicit. Very.
    Too much fun in The office.

    27
    3
  38. Anonymous says:

    Been that way for decades.

    24
  39. Anonymous says:

    Classic PPM: Playing with Public Money.
    Remember the spend of public money trying to convince the public we need a cruise ship dock when we didnt want it?

    25
    9
  40. Anonymous says:

    The Governor grins.
    The Commissioner says the crime situation is stable.
    The Deputy Governor says the civil service is world class.

    #Leggewasright.

    41
    2
  41. Banana Republican says:

    Expose all the abuses and skullduggery that goes on in these islands by politicians, civil servants and the politically appointed boards that carry out the agenda of the politicians and fail to maintain independence or pursue value for money objectives. Cayman is a nice well dressed up lady that is a harlot for the right people and price point. Until persons are investigated and convicted nothing will change in this banana republic.

    24
    4
  42. Anonymous says:

    If pre-election “treating” is corruption, then why isn’t this too?

    15
    4
  43. Anonymous says:

    Corruption Islands

    16
    5
  44. Anonymous says:

    Where is the anti-corruption unit?

    21
    2
    • Anonymous says:

      About half of them are currently suspended…..oops…. I mean on modified duties.

    • Anonymous says:

      Probably WFH.

    • Anonymous says:

      Until it receives a complaint and is satisfied there’s evidence of corruption more convincing than the burblings of some anonymous keyboard warrior like you, the Anti Corruption Commission can’t do anything. So be a brave little soldier, put your head above the parapet and send in a complaint – or shut up.

      1
      4
      • Anonymous says:

        Bullshit. Inaction can only be by design. Countless apparent instances of corruption are left scattered about. Some are concrete monoliths. Others are recorded in gazetted status grants, or fill bankers boxes collated by bank liquidators. It is hard to move in professional circles in Cayman without literally tripping over evidence.

  45. Anonymous says:

    This is all hot air, there was no policy or rule to break so why try to make a case now? Clearly if there is no rule to break you cant retroactively say the rules were broken.

    PS. Every Government has a mad rush at the end of the term to complete planned works, its nothing new and the money was budgeted and supposed to be spent anyway. No Crime here!!!

    14
    18
  46. Anonymous says:

    Expose all the crookedness no one is above the law

    17
    3
  47. Anonymous says:

    Will there be any consequences? Or will this go the same way as O’Connor-Connelly’s drive-way paving in the Brac?

    28
    4
    • Anonymous says:

      Paving private driveways and paving public roads are two completely different things.

      1
      2
    • Anonymous says:

      4.16pm No wrongdoing so no consequences. Government funds were spent on Government roads. No suggestion of failing to get value for money. Therefore there was no abuse. Some individuals may not like the timing especially those opposed to the Govt of the day but that’s because they want to be able to say that the Govt failed. Obviously it did not help to return the last Govt to power.

      1
      5
      • Anonymous says:

        So what were all the workers doing for the 40 months leading up to the election? It wasn’t a waste of public funds to have them in reserve?

  48. Anonymous says:

    If we didn’t have elections every 4 years some roads would never get paved. This has been going on long before Sir Alden was born.

    21
    3
  49. Anonymous says:

    Joey only paved the northbound condo-side lane of West Bay Road and it stops right at his GT North district line.

    20
    4
  50. Anonymous says:

    PPM are always so obvious lol

    51
    6
    • Anonymous says:

      The issue of pre-election road work upsurge has been occurring for about 50 years. Not just a PPM thing.

      18
      5
      • Anonymous says:

        Or how certain areas were deprioritized for storm drain cleaning before Grace under the current government and their selected chair of the NRA at the time.

      • Anonymous says:

        Sounds like a Democrat when caught. instead of sorry, it was wrong you excuse their unjust actions by saying the other guys did it too.

        Cut the crap. Be above these shenanigans.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.