Speaker berates government over PQ failings
(CNS): House Speaker Sir Alden McLaughlin told members of the House of Parliament on Tuesday that he was troubled by the government’s failure to bring answers to most of the questions that had been submitted to the House despite it having ample time to do so. After answering just two questions submitted by opposition members yesterday, the government had no more answers today, even though there were at least 17 outstanding questions. McLaughlin described this as “abhorrent to democracy”.
This meeting of parliament had been postponed twice, once due to Hurricane Beryl, which gave ministers, ministries and departments more than 28 days to produce answers to the 19 questions posed for this session. McLaughlin said that two were answered on Monday, but no other answers to the list of questions have been submitted to parliament.
“This parliament meets very infrequently. It is absolutely abhorrent to democracy for ministers not to be in a position to answer questions asked of them. It is a critically important part of the whole parliamentary scrutiny,” he said. “This meeting is unlikely to last beyond this week. I am urging ministers to do whatever they can to ensure that answers are submitted so that the parliament can carry out its critically important role as scrutineers of the executive.”
The opposition PPM submitted at least 16 questions, ranging from the continually delayed opening of the long-term mental health facility to the government’s controversial plans for a costly third communications submarine cable.
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Category: Politics
I think Jay Ebanks, Sabina Turner is trying their best with most things, Andre Ebanks is doing alittle bit for his country and his people, the rest of them need to be replaced in april 2025.Too lazy & selfish, want to get big pay & don,t do any work for it, i think this group of politicians have ment in the house of paliament less than any other group of politicians, no wonder why they can,t answer 19 questions, only 2 out of 19 after given 28 days to find out information, they should be ashame of their selfs.
Can someone tell me what efffing purpose does Bernie Bush serve ? I watched him yesterday and I was totally embarrassed that he is even in the Parliament. Is this the best WB could do?
Bernie and Mac, must be the best and most honorable men in the whole of West Bay
caymanians elect these people so you have no-one else to blame but yourselves.
and to make things worse, you also prevent the most qualified and successful people on island from being elected…
welcome to wonderland.
we do NOT WANT non-Caymanians running and they never will be able to. there is a reason only generational Caymanians can run.
Dat wha ya get!
And you will therefore always have government that has vested personal interests and corruption. Good luck.
Agreed. Imagine if you had a government run by people who’s family members didn’t own businesses x, y and z and who actually just wanted what’s best for Cayman rather than the pockets of their friends and families.
@1:04 PM – these are problems for MY people to face & solve. We were quite fine until all of you started showing up. I don’t get why you people think your way of life is superior – it’s actually not & I pity you. At least I’m home 🙂 you should try to go home too.
Yep, everyone from here is unqualified for anything, and every immigrant comes in with a pristine record and is qualified for any and everything. You nailed it.
I know you’re being sarcastic, but the evidence of this fact is everywhere everyday, just today the government not fulfilling their fiduciary duties and Seven Years in Mount Trashmore.
Pl ase Missa pip squeak speaker tell the public why you haven’t resigned from the ppm since you became speaker? You know full well this is a custom and a requirement in the Mother country , yet you continue with your conflict of interest status. Next petitionn is red is t remove the Speak r Sir Alden McLaughlin.
Please do not call any one of them ‘Hon’, even ‘Min’ is a stretch!
Lest we forget – these Cayman parliamentarians are among the highest paid on this planet. Yet here we stand where the UPM government has answered 2 out of 19 questions.
Utterly disgraceful.
What in the world are these people doing to earn their inflated paychecks?
You can do better Cayman voters…
Sooo, the back bench (PPM) writes a series of questions that lack measurable parameters, each almost requiring a paper to fully answer them, and then whines when it isn’t made the top priority of the current government?
duelling politrix?
The PPM (for all their sins), are asking valid and important questions to which the public deserves answers. The UPM was given plenty of time to come up with responses – but the best they could do was answer 2 out of 19. Disgraceful.
Asking about legalisation of pepper spray is not a valid query. The PPM can refer to their own meeting minutes, denying this access, for their answer. The public should be smart enough to know the answer.
what about a home made Chilli spray or 100% saline spray or simply a hydrogen peroxide bottle you can buy at most stores?
They probably couldn’t understand the “big words”
Come on folks, these answers are all top secret and the Premier is off sick. Don’t you all worry yourselves as everything will be just fine.
Caymanians have only ourselves to blame. We keep electing old friends or acquaintances or people that give us a handout. We keep electing people who have failed at different careers and simply see a political appointment as easy money or a way to obtain power and influence. We have to live the consequences of electing people who don’t really want to serve the country and aren’t qualified to lead us. Its on us people.
pot calling the kettle black(or afro-caribbean)
a bit rich coming from anyone associated with do-nothing-ppm…
2 out of 19 questions, that is not that bad for this group of nurse bottle sucking bunch of half-asleep brain dead highly paid frauds.
Look at the positive side, they are good at social media posts and manipulating their voters into thinking they are up to the job as MP’s.
All the important projects are being forgotten!
No new initiatives for the people.
A minimum wage that is outrageous.
Did not accept or amend the proposed Electoral Boundaries.
Sad, this is not a government that should be in power.
It’s the questions that weren’t asked. Read the PPM’s Top Urgent Second Request wish list of queries…this is why Cayman never gets anywhere.
I think that’s in line with what the majority voted for.
Most of the MPs could only answer 2 out of 19 questions on a test in high school, and those 2 answers were mostly wrong.
Few of them didn’t even know how to spell their name much less, ask questions.
Hold on, who voted for them? And yes, if you didn’t vote then you’re part of the problem too.
re Anonymous @1.30 pm 24/07/2024
There were people in WBW that did not vote for legitimate reasons, they became ill on election day and some had deaths in their family and emergency situations. It is not fair to say they are a part of the problem, why we have such an inept bunch of losers running the Government. Even if they had voted for the other candidate, we would have been in a worse situation.
Infact with the other candidates that lost their election bid, in the other polling divisions, we would have been even worse off today had they won.
Bernie Bush brought down his birds of the same feather with him to West Bay in the 2021 campaign. can you imagine if Moxam and Jackosn had won their polling divisions what an absolute shit mess Cayman would be in today?
Well said Dexter. We need more of your comments.
Chris, what would you do if you were the ACC on shift, with admission of open conspiracy that some $2.1 billion in liabilities has been hidden from the balance sheet, with consent from most of that chamber, a deceit played upon the FCO to ironically qualify for FFR? How many people would be arrested?
Very telling that Moses only cares about increasing aircraft, not managing them properly. David Wight wants pepper spray, and hospital beds for those sprayed errantly. Come on.
Here are some real head scratchers for Parliament:
– When can the public expect the Deputy Governor to insist on minimum accounting pass standards on department cash flows? If the Deputy Governor cannot deliver this passing grade competence, as reported for years by our Auditor General, is there a replacement in mind? When does that happen? Is there any reason he can’t get his performance review, and/or be fired?
– Why does Parliament allow Financial Secretary Ken Jefferson to openly-conspire to hide $2.1 billion dollars in unreported liabilities from our books? Why is that man still in his station, and not under arrest? What should the long-deceived FCO do about the OAG’s continued adverse opinion on the Entire Public Sector (EPS), and what should be the impact on our Framework for Fiscal Responsibility (FFR), credit rating backstop, and FATF/OECD corruption blacklistings?
– Why didn’t PPM-led administrations keep competent track of finite $30mln duty waiver allowances to from the NRA Agreements, and/or the counter-party deliverables they committed the people of the Cayman Islands to over eight years ago? Two complete hotel builds ago and a $50mln reno of Ritz later, how is this still a credit on the ledger, and not a public general revenue receivable in the tens of millions, plus interest?
– What was the award mechanism for a PPM-led Cabinet signing off on appointing a lucrative longterm management contract to DART (in closing minutes of regime) for “Regen” future garbage management? Why didn’t this follow the merit-based procurement process? There wasn’t even a bid proposal document submitted. This property developer doesn’t appear to hold any waste management expertise.
– What was the total cost to the Cayman Islands of locking down the border for years? How much did that cost the people of the islands, our airline, and industry? Has that impact been tabulated?
– The fuel stamp duty collected by CUC was to be paid through to the NRA, where can we see reporting of those remittances?
– Why did the NRA only pave the northbound half of West Bay Road to the termination of the GT North district line? Where is the sidewalk on the East side of the street in the Hotel Tourism Zone? Where are the PPM’s long-promised bicycle lanes – a deliverable promised by Hew in 2015? What happened to the requisitioned budget that was allocated to the NRA and paid from 2015 for that purpose?
– When will Parliament ban/disqualify convicted felons, and those charged with serious crimes, from seeking and holding senior money and policy handling positions within the Civil Service. When will the Nolan principles kick in? Will Parliament adopt the Nolan principles and amend the Elections Law to expand the universe of qualified Caymanians that can be nominated to serve their territory? Clearly, having a Caymanian granny doesn’t appear to be conferring any magic intelligence or ethical/principal advantage.
– Second barrel of that is: when will Parliament allocate proportionate powers and resources to the supervising agencies that are supposed to check Cabinet and government ambitions, required transparency, personal advancement/greed, and conflicts? SIPL, OAG, ACC, NCL, all are ineffective window-dressing agencies that come to mind. Must the FCO intervene?
In a quick simple answer to all your questions = NEVER!
Brilliant
8;19 clearly a UPM puppet. I bet you got appointed to numerous boards and committees over the last 3 years.
You are deflected blame when you should be focusing on the fact that the UPM has been a complete failure.
If you can’t accept that then you are part of the problem.
8;19. Tell us the convicted criminals in the civil service. You must be referring to members of parliament. Please tell us you are aware that MP’s are not civil servants.
The seven Nolan Principles in the Standards in Public Life Law apply equally to both sets of public servants. There are lots of public servants in the Cause Lists that get arrested all the time, some on very serious charges, and abuses of public trust, and yet stay active on the payroll, like they’ll be coming back to work again. That’s a fail.
“lots of civil servants ….that get arrested” etc Utter bull-crap, 10:25.
Same thing i said in my last comment, The Government does not have to answer any questions if they choose not to, just delay delay and collect the pay, even though some of the questions a High school student could think of better ones! Government is a joke! A bunch of self serving individuals that has no regard for the Cayman People of this Country.I hope next election people can see beyond the handouts and the Political Strategy of telling people what they want to hear! Any fool can do that.
I think Jay Ebanks & Sabina Turner are their best in most cases for the caymanian people, Andre Ebanks doing alittle bit for the people, everyone else shouldn,t be elected again.
Good job, Mr. Alden.
They really have no excuse for no answers because they have all the support to get things done through their bloated staff, and their fat salaries are never late.
Access to pepper spray is a top priority? Seriously?
A very useful item to have on hand when a politician comes knocking on your door just before the next election.
Why are we surprised.
These clowns will answer in 2025.
unfortunately I don’t think they will.
Who is going to run and unseat Juliana, Kenneth, Jon Jon, Saunders?
Those four at a minimum need to go but I don’t think there is a viable candidate to replace them, and I don’t know that their voters will vote to do so.
Watch Kenny play the game. He’s at every single event there is. He is in every photo, on every broadcast, everywhere. He must pay someone to listen to CMR and call him when he’s discussed because every time his name comes up he calls in.
He brings NOTHING to the table. He has NO qualifications for his role. He has ZERO qualifications for anything in the private sector and therefor politics is his ONLY hope on Earth of earning a good paycheck.
He’s so damn visible, that his constituents don’t know how blind and dumb he is. He’ll get re-elected in a landslide and probably be premier at some point.
Prove me wrong GTC and show me you’ve got the brains to get rid of this clown.
I think you are correct about KB becoming premier one day (not too far away either). It’s a popularity contest – that’s all!
@ 1:16pm Dont forget that his Campaign signage AKA Advertising billboards has been displayed since last election! It reminds me of how Saddam Hussein had his billboards all over Iraq! What is KB going to put next? His Statue?
Give us something to pull down!
1:16 your analysis of KB is actually an analysis of very many of our MLAs/ MPs of the last 30 years: failures, unqualified, no idea what policy or governance is but can lick dominoes, give handouts and drink beers with the woters so they get elected for life.
No, I don’t think they will answer in 2025 because this collective of self-serving individuals are merely a symptom of a larger problem – an electorate that votes incompetent, poorly educated individuals into power each election.
In a properly functioning society, the electorate would hold these do-nothing politicians to account and vote them out.
the current administration is the worst i can remember…..a disgusting mix of aloofness, ignorance and incompetence.
any comment mrs governor?…or is it time to petition the uk directly for intervention?
It’s at least on par with last 4 regimes, several of those PPM-led. None of them are good. In fact, according to the OAG, none of them even pass.
Totally concur with you. That SYNTHETIC SABRINA – really is sickening with her always confrontational responses. Will they go away in 2025? I highly doubt it. In the Cayman Islands, the election process is simply a popularity contest.
Thank you Alden.
Oh please! He needs to check his party leader, he never responds to emails no matter how urgent or important they are.
They are all alike. He just playing the part now. Acting like he cares. You want to see the real Alden go South Coast.
If they cannot comprehend or choose to ignore the concept of public service it is at best optimistic to expect answers to Parliamentary questions
This abysmal group of ignorant profiteers that make up the UPM government don’t know the answers to any important questions except how they can line their own pockets at the expense of the people of this country. They are by far the worst government in the history of the Cayman Islands.
They are all weak, not just the UPM. We need to stop cycling through a braindead roster by changing the Elections Law. Ban criminals, and disqualify those with serious charges pending, DUIs, or other community trust civil indictments. Voters need access to better options.
Speaker is not wrong.
The Speaker, former PPM leader, among other things, would be a key person of interest in an active financial conspiracy to conceal KYD$2.1 billion from the balance sheet, and the willing underwriter of over a decade of OAG failing grades, that continue. Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson still in his post…no arrests, no ACC investigation…yet.
The precedent the Progressives set is coming back to bite them in the ass.
What do u expect? The government is not capable of running a train set never mind the country. They have no answers of they would have answered right?
What does Sir Alden expect from a motley bunch of medieval, self-serving slackers we have in Cabinet? After all, he’s part architect of this fine mess we’re in. These blaggards have no respect for fulfilling their obligations leaders, they are ultimately selfish and shameless. It’s nothing short of an F’ing disgrace. Dross politicians survive on a corruptible electorate and their only concern is to fuel keeping that status quo. Questions are to contentious, it’s easier to deflect defer and bribe your way out of responsibility.
This is Cayman. Truly a third world, uneducated, unethical cesspool of corruption and incompetence. I grieve for what could have been if only Caymanians had some common vision to nuture their culture, protect their land, educate their children, and not to sell out their grandchildren’s future for peanuts.
Caymanians had that common vision. It was the foxes that were allowed into the hen-house that destroyed it.
Mind you when he was Premier his Government did the same thing to the Opposition.
Our descent into the third wold is nearly complete. When we repeatedly bring in our key experts from the same small group of third world failing states, rather than beacons of excellence like Singapore or Finland, or heaven forbid, our mother country, we should not be surprised when our standards of governance and other aspects of our society start to look like those of our neighbors. At least Alden seems to see it. There may still be some hope.
Hon Min Kathy what is so difficult in providing an update of status of Regen waste to energy project? If Civil Service is incompetant why not ask Regen project lawyers (Maples) or financial consultants (KPMG) to provide your Ministry an update?
Regen did not submit a winning bid proposal. The PPM-led Cabinet signed-off on an agreement to agree, without a merit case, and outside of procurement frameworks. The status is an unworkable and forever expensive solution to a simple problem that the PPM sat on for over 10 years. Waste Management is a legacy PPM fail.