PPM dismisses responsibility for ReGen disaster
(CNS): The agreement the PPM signed in 2021 with a Dart-led consortium to develop a waste-to-energy facility and a waste-management system was a terrible deal, according to a recent report by the Office of the Auditor General, but the party, now in opposition, still seems unable to accept responsibility for its failings. Instead, Deputy PPM Leader Joey Hew has taken aim at the sustainability minister’s decision to “abandon” the ReGen deal, accusing the current government of creating more uncertainty and risk.
The OAG report documented his party’s catalogue of errors that forced the current administration to begin exit talks.
In a video message that Hew appears to have recorded and posted on social media before he had read the OAG’s damning report, he hurls incorrect allegations at the Ministry of Sustainability, which took over the project negotiations with Dart following the 2021 elections. Due to a catalogue of concerns, the ministry had asked the audit office to look at the deal up to that point.
In the social media post, Hew implied that the PACT government was to blame for a jump in project costs from “$670 million to an unsubstantiated $2 billion”. However, there has never been any evidence to support the idea that costs had leapt to as much as $2 billion; the OAG’s report suggests that, if the government had gone ahead with the project, the costs would have reached around $1 billion.
But Hew blamed “the dithering and delay from the PACT and the UPM Government over the past three years” for the soaring costs, a position completely contradicted by the audit report. Auditor General Sue Winspear and her team spelt out the reasons for the increasing costs, finding that they were caused by numerous fundamental errors that the PPM-led administration made at the start and in the early stages of the process.
Following the leak of the OAG’s report to the wider public after the office had sent the document to all 19 MPs, the Progressives issued a press release in which the party played down the significant mistakes made when it was in office and even challenged the auditor general’s evidence-based findings.
The party appeared dismissive of basic errors as something to consider for the future, as they sought to play down their significance and point the finger at the PACT Government’s failure to meet the deadlines that the Progressive government had left them with.
The PPM said that “updated information was routinely provided through the procurement process and Ministers made decisions to change approach as new information came to light. Such changes include the capital injection already mentioned, accepting the revised size of the energy recovery plant, and reducing the scope of the contract to cut costs. However, the extent to which the detailed financial modelling assumptions were revisited needs to be clarified. There are significant issues of proper process that the Public Accounts Committee will need to probe in detail whenever it meets to consider the report.”
However, the press release failed to address the fact that the early errors caused the problems that led PACT to question the affordability and value for money of what shaped up to be a disastrous deal that would have massively favoured Dart over the people of the Cayman Islands.
This has left the islands with a major waste-management problem at a time when the population is growing at an unprecedented level. According to the most recent statistics from the Economics and Statistics Office, at the end of October 2023, there were just under 85,000 people resident in Cayman. However, this is believed to be a conservative estimate given the increase in the number of work permits this year, which was well over 37,400 in May, about 1,000 more people than at the time of the Labour Force Survey.
Ignoring the part he played in the process that led to this point, Hew demanded that the current government respond to a list of questions about what happened to the talks since they took office — many of which are answered in the OAG report.
Hew also asked how the UPM plans to replace the 8% of the energy used on Grand Cayman that the WTE plant was expected to generate, which is included in the National Energy Policy. At this point, however, Sustainability Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks has indicated that the government is likely to retender the project and will likely look for a conventional contract with a WTE expert.
The deputy opposition leader demanded to know where a new landfill will be situated, as the existing dump area in George Town could run out of space in the next few years. However, this is largely because the PPM agreed to — and paid for — Dart’s remediation work at the old Mount Trashmore during the negotiations and before any deal was signed.
Critics of the agreement the PPM signed on the eve of the elections have noted that this had weakened the government’s hand in the negotiations because covering up the dump, which is located next to Dart’s flagship town, Camana Bay, was the key motivation for the group to move into the waste management business.
See Joey Hew’s video statement here.
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Category: Environmental Health, Health, Politics
I read the report and believe the findings of the Auditor General’s Office over any politician especially Joey Hew and the Progressives.
They negotiated a bad deal from the outset with Dart. Hew is in denial because he is in the middle of all of trying to serve two masters.
Stop picking on PPM, they are the best. Override the current government, take control and let Dart do everything. Dart all the way! They have the best people in the whole world working for them.
Mainlined the wretched KoolAid you did!
Poor Joey Who is obviously not very good at anything he does touches business, politics or acting
Sadly, he’s playing himself. He’s Dart’s political puppet, nothing else.
What an embarrassment Joey has turned out to be as a MLA. Vote him out in 2025!
Such complex and costly projects should be only done by the world’s experts in the field. From scratch to finish. They should also be involved in running the facilities once completed.
The only experts I’d trust are Japanese companies specializing in implementing such projects in developing countries.
CIG must admit they have no expertise whatsoever to get involved in this scale projects.
https://www.jwrf.or.jp/en/overseas/#:~:text=Japan's%20local%20governments%20and%2For,further%20mobilization%20of%20the%20technologies.
https://climateadaptationplatform.com/can-japans-waste-to-energy-technology-shape-global-waste-management/
https://climateadaptationplatform.com/can-japans-waste-to-energy-technology-shape-global-waste-management/
The Japanese are lightyears ahead of the West, and what they do probably seems like science fiction to most, especially those cave people we have for ministers.
Is the PPM blaming just the government for the failure of the deal or DART and the government?
There is enough blame to be shared equally.
Typical blame, blame someone else, never accountable. Well done Office of the Auditor General, need more like you.
From day 1, government should have hired an experienced waste management consultant to set the parameters as to what was needed, then did an RFP. Chosen a “winner “ then execute the contract. If that was done the entire project and remediation would be done. Elect better legislators is the long term solution.
This is the most professional way I’ve ever seen someone say “but lookya, da wassin me, bobo”
He is a buffoon and proves it in the video
The OAG rests the blame on at least 3 political administrations. But let’s not lose sight of the fact that civil servant administrators are the “technical advisors” to the politicians. The politicians dictate the policy they wish to follow, and the civil service “advisors” present options to guide such policies.
This matter spans 3 political administrations, but most likely, most of the same civil servants were involved throughout.
Clearly, this highlights in the civil service administration and of this project…research, options, technical approach, implementation processes, etc.
Franz Manderson and his mostly useless Chief Officers and Dept. Heads have struck again, wasting more public funds!
When will Franz and the Civil Service be accountable???
World class disgrace!!
Or, they did their job and gave options & analysis for the politicians to choose from. Not their fault if the political choice is to not be open about why they make a choice which then doesn’t work out best for the country. See EW Arterial Route as example number 8-2024.
Usual PPM nonsense – the buck stops everywhere but here
PPM live in fantasy land. They cannot be trusted to lead this country ever again. The blatant lies Hew tells in the video proves he unfit as a MLA or leader of anything.
I hate organizations that only try to point fingers and find who to blame rather than finding a solution to the problem at hand. Such a widespread problem in places of weak leadership and always leads to poor performance from the very top to the very bottom.
Two out of three Cayman politicians are as dumb as the other one. Thanks Joey for proving it.
Joey Hew proves again that he’s a clown and ill equipped to lead this country. Yet those failings will make him the perfect leader for the PPM. He is better off as full time employee for Dart and the developers that keep his remote control in their pockets selling toilet paper.
The PPM are directly responsible for the expensive ReGen mess from day one. Along with the inept civil service that should never been tasked with project management. Both are out of their depth when dealing with a corporate giant like dart that took advantage of them in the negotiations now we country is stuck with a massive bill due to political and administrative incompetence.