EY lands $1.2 million contract to reform CIG budget
(CNS): The government recently awarded a contract worth more than CI$1.2 million to reform and modernise the way the government does its budget. The local consultants have been asked to help implement an outcome-based budgeting and reporting framework that includes a system to support the preparation and reporting process. For years, the Office of the Auditor General has raised concerns about the lack of any real accountability in the budget because it does not reflect the results of public spending or any clear intent.
According to the request for proposals posted on the government’s procurement site, the finance ministry wants the budget to be clearly linked to outputs rather than inputs, as is the case at present. It also wants to use technology and make the hefty budget documents more concise, clear and transparent, with trusted data and meaningful insight.
As the winning consultants, EY will be required to design an outcome-based budgeting and reporting framework that is tailored to the Cayman Islands and the government’s specific needs in collaboration with key stakeholders.
“Combining leading global practices with local insights will ensure that the framework follows best practices, considers Cayman’s unique requirements and is locally relevant. This would include a re-
designed budget process to ensure end-to-end outcome focus and strategic alignment,” government officials stated. “A critical element of the solution would be selection, implementation, and integration of a budget preparation and reporting tool for the budget system that can be expanded later to report on monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements.”
The government wants the budget documents redesigned to show strategically important budget details at the outcome and ministry levels and streamline the reports to reduce the amount of data included. It is also seeking advice for legislative changes to the Public Management and Finance Act in line with an updated framework that would mandate the outcome-based budgeting process going forward.
The auditor general has advised the government to make its budget more understandable and accessible to the public and demonstrate more clearly what it has achieved with the more than CI$1 billion it collects annually from taxpayers.
Over three years ago in a report published at the end of 2020, Auditor General Sue Winspear found that the current process was “not effective or transparent” and there was room to simplify the budget and improve accountability. She said the government had failed to connect its strategic policy statement with how it will spend the people’s money and how this will achieve its aims with the budget.
Speaking about the need for reform at a PAC meeting relating to that report a few months later, Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson accepted that the current budget system doesn’t show how public cash being spent by the government is achieving its stated policies. The output-based budget does not clearly show the government’s real performance, but he said a new model would take time to implement.
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Category: Local News
Input and output-based budgeting fall short for efficient government spending. Zero-based budgeting, demanding justification for every expense, offers a solution to prevent wasteful expenditure. For example, spending $100 million on a school without increasing student capacity highlights the inefficiency of current budgeting methods. Adopting zero-based budgeting could ensure funds are used more wisely, focusing on real value. Without this change, government expenses risk escalating uncontrollably, wasting resources that could otherwise benefit the community.
I wonder if EY told Julie that spending $50 Million Dollars on a high school with less than 150 students on an island with decreasing population growth of less than 1500 people makes absolutely no sense, if she would believe them.
I am still shaking my head as to my the PPM voted for this…but then again, PPM, UPM, any difference except the first letter in the acronym..all birds of a feather.
Julie would have been better of getting the Brac and Little Cayman two good airplanes to help grow the tourism on those two island rather than wasting money on a high school that by the time it is built will probably not have more than half of the present students it has now.
This would make sense if we had a government smart enough to employ even five percent of what the consultants would provide them with.
These looney Tunes we have now for a government will use this to say they are trying to reform the budget in order to get re-elected and the ones that ge elected will throw it it in File 13 with all of the other consultant reports.
Stupid people do stupid things. Again. What’s the big surprise?
lol, Big 4 consulting.
If you know what I am saying give me a thumbs up.
Are you saying they couldn’t get hired by Bain, KKR, BCG, or McKinsey?
Stop employing the DG’s Clones and Clowns in the CIvil Service then shift to not hiring politician’s pets and Lodge Cronies simple enough solution no need to waste money on reform!
Keep asking….
How many recommendations of the miller-shaw or ernst & young reports have been implemented?
Even good budgeting won’t help when you still can’t account properly for what gets spent.
What the Civil Service and the SAGC’s need to do is to employ more fully qualified chartered accountants, non Caymanians if necessary. the we wouldn’t be in this mess.
oh yes that’s what the Cayman Islands needs more expats.
Well, they have not been able to find enough competent Caymanians to run the government.
You might be surprised at how many chartered accountants/CPAs they have now who are still donkeys.
So what does that say aboutthe many Third Worl Class Chief Officers, duplicate Deputy Chief Officer dufusses/dufi, Chief Policy Officers Chief HR/Finance/coffee creamer??!
And that’s just those in the governmentsexecutive Level.
With mega budgets and 2 month vacays, what dothey actually do.
The private consultants must review our laws, Infrastrure and even the CIG staffing!
The view from. the topof the heap must be anice one.
I would be happy to spend $1.2 billion if they could find a way to permanently reform the existing and all future Ministers.
Fascinating article gents I for one am behooved that the wisdom and guidance should rest on Dwayne the Rock Seymour like a cargo ship passing under a Baltimore bridge the community is in need for a commander in chief and chief Seymour exemplifies all faucets all boxes checked a man that knows how to read between the lines far beyond what dozens of accountant mortals could deliver
The EY report from first phase of this project was never published. So it makes sense to commit $1.2 mil of public money to phase two without any public transparency. CIG at its world class best… nothing to see here
Typical CIG move. Hire a consultant for what their own people can’t figure out themselves. We pay double and over the odds for recommendations that will never come to pass.
Numbskulls!
Dan Scott self proclaimed future premier runs E&Y right ?
Wrong.
https://www.caymancompass.com/2023/06/07/ey-chief-dan-scott-retiring/
Not sure where the self proclaimed bit comes from but Cayman would be much better of if he was the next Premier. Although to be fair Cayman would be better off with a rocking horse in charge than the current incumbent.
The self proclaimed comes him. He is organising a party and promises full funding to candidates who run with him.
Betters have put big money on the fact that he won’t dare run against either Mrs. O’Connor Connolly or Mr. Moses Kirkconnell.
Red Bay against Mr. Alden MacLaughlin? Newlands againts Mr Wayne Panton?
@8:15pm If only this was true..I would be the first in line to support Dan and any of the candidates he would bring to the table as I am sure he is going to ensure the men and women he would vette for these positions would of good calibre and educated so that they could actually help us get back on the right track.
If anyone doesn’t see now that the likes of Alden, Mckeeva, Julie, Moses, John John, Barbara, David and Joey are only into this for the money and the power and should be retired from political office, I just don’t know what it will take. How many more years before we say enough is enough??
You dont know the Dan!
Self proclaimed?? I wish Dan would run. He is a well educated and a very ethical man and doesn’t need to be bought and paid for, but then again look what they did to Wayne..Goes to prove that we Caymanians would prefer turkeys, hams and a long list of voter bribes to having good ethical men and women who will work for the betterment of our country.
I still hope and pray that we can find some hard working, well educated and ethical men and women to run in our next election and that we/us Caymanians will put aside our old ways of how we elect politicians. Recycling the same old politicians or those groomed by these old politicians and their failed parties and handlers will see Cayman continue to fall into ruin..
How will that happen?
Poor Wayne …NOT! How do you think he won in Newlands ? Sure wasn’t because of his “policies”. He did just what Mac and others have done. Handouts, gifts, cash, the list goes on.
Retires
Changing the format of your accounts is only window dressing and fails to solve the problem of monetary incompetence. There is no one in the room to stand up and assert strict financial discipline. Ever since Finance Minister Archer left the building it seems that all we have are MPs pushing projects with questionable business cases to aid their re-election. While this may appear good for the MPs I the short term, in the Long run the Caymanian people will be left holding the bag in a country will high crime and a degraded environment.
High crime, degraded environment, unskilled people who are minority in their own country and a BROKE Government.
I could do this with one system and i certainly wouldn’t have charged government $1.2 million to tell them that. This is just madness every government in Cayman does. Give away millions for reports and more reports, studies and more studies.
Guaranteed that no action will be taken with the report’s recommendations.
We have seen this all before. The report will be shelved like all the other ones because there is ZERO political will to act on the recommendations.
It is hard not to be cynical after seeing so many reports produced.
Why do we have Chief Officers and all that staff?
Shambles at CIG. Another 7-figure report that will be ignored.
9:12. You are obviously living in the dark ages. You do realize that EY has not been asked to do a report. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz
We have chief officers so they can read and write for Seymour, Saunders, Kenneth, Juju , Jay , Mac , and Bernie , whose lack of schooling makes them incapable of reading and understanding all those big words.
To be fair, Chris can write for himself and when he doesn’t want to, he has an expert communicator in his inner circle.
Consultants must realise by now that this is easy money. Put whatever you want in the plan, because you already know it will never happen.
I can think of a way of saving $1.2mio if that’s any help!
I get it – years for the plan to be developed, more years for it to be considered, before the document is shelved – in reality government wants to build a longer road, down which they can kick the proverbial can.
Wonder if this means job cuts since the work is outsourced.
Wow – great to see a government contract finally go to someone other than Deloitte.
Friends in the right places
Time wasting tactic. It will take until after the next election to produce the first consultant report and the next government won’t want something commissioned by the last one. Is there any other government in the world that he made outcome reporting work? New Zealand got the closest but deemed it an expensive exercise with no return on the investment. This will cost much more than the $1m contact. Spend the million on something that will make a difference to caymanians.
It won’t make a damned bit of difference whatever EY comes up with. There will still be no real accountability for poor management of public funds and outcomes that are not achieved.
Basically, our bland overpaid civil service gets paid to use our money to pay expats to do their jobs for them.
#worldclass
* bloated
Hey, they don’t use logic around here, they’re going to come for you about generational this, paper Caymanian that. Also, they say expats are lazy and don’t contribute to the economy. Thank God for the civil service :); otherwise, idk how we’d manage the economy.
Will the government & politicians follow the recommendations or just shove it off the the dead file shelf? From past consultant reports done, it sure seems like they won’t change anything they are currently doing.
Not concerned about the funding but sure as hell concerned about the brain power that is elected. We can’t continue voting in JACKASSES who are only capable of braying from the backside. BTE and BTW have poor representation in the LA.
We need a population that seeks out honest people with integrity, who want to represent us and make our homeland a place to work and live in.
NB: You always have a problem with posts that highlight the route causes of our election failures. Yet you can post and critique when and where you feel like.
Don’t be fooled. This is nothing to do with expat v caymanian. This is about who from the civil service is running in the next election and who is going to fund it