Government oversight
ACC chair says unit busier than ever
(CNS): The Anti-Corruption Commission will need more investigators if the number of reports continues at current levels, according to ACC Chair Richard Coles, a former attorney general of the Cayman Islands. He told the Public Accounts Committee last week that the ACC could proceed with more cases if his team was doubled to match the doubling of […]
OfReg and CIMA directors top pay of SAGCs
(CNS): A new report from the Office of the Auditor General has revealed significant disparities in how much staff, bosses and board directors are paid across statutory authorities and government companies (SAGCs). The report shows the board chairs of OfReg and CIMA are making $4,500 and $4,000 per month and their directors are also the highest […]
Ethics law undergoing another review
(CNS): The long-awaited Standards in Public Life Law, which was first passed by the Legislative Assembly more than four years ago, is going through another review because of backlash from private sector board members, who don’t want their information being made public, government officials told the Public Accounts Committee Wednesday. Although the law was amended […]
Poor law rename much more than cosmetic
(CNS): The deputy chief officer in the Ministry of Community of Affairs, André Ebanks, has said that the overhaul of the outdated poor law desperately needs a name change and it that will be much more than just a bit of cosmetic tinkering. Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee last week, the senior ministry official, […]
Airport 20% over budget and a year late
(CNS): The Office of the Auditor General has finally released a redacted copy of an audit report it completed last year, which was initially withheld, on the Owen Roberts International Airport renovation project. Sue Winspear and her team have revealed that the cost of the project is at least 20% more than originally budgeted, that it […]
Port board deputy chairing procurement committee
(CNS): The current deputy of the port authority board, Arek Joseph, has been appointed as the chair of the new Public Procurement Committee, set to replace the Central Tenders Committee under the new regime that will oversee government’s major projects and acquisitions. CNS has seen correspondence which confirms that Premier Alden McLaughlin appointed Joseph to […]
Health insurance challenge dominates PAC
(CNS): Public Accounts Committee member Chris Saunders (Bodden Town West) articulated the frustrations of PAC and the community when he expressed concern that the health ministry had failed to respond to shocking figures revealed more than three years ago that the local insurance companies made a collective profit of more than $51 million in 2015 […]
NAU identifies trend of ageing customers
(CNS): The director of the Needs Assessment Unit, Tamara Hurlston, told the Public Accounts Committee that her team had noticed a trend of increasing numbers of elderly people coming to them for help, especially indigent medical support, as meagre private sector pensions fail to stretch to the costs of health insurance.
DG silent on ethics law but welcomes report
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government has developed a comprehensive national framework to prevent fraud and corruption, according to Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, who welcomed the Office of the Auditor General’s report on the subject made public last week. But in a press release issued on Friday, he said nothing at all about the OAG’s main […]
Auditor urges CIG to implement ethics law
(CNS): The auditor general has urged the government to implement the Standards in Public Life Law in order to plug the gap in the public sector’s anti-corruption regime. In the latest audit from her office to be made public, “Fighting Corruption in the Cayman Islands”, Sue Winspear assessed the national framework for fraud and corruption […]
CS bosses to face PAC over slow progress
(CNS): Senior civil servants in the ministries of community affairs and health will be in the hot seat next week when they appear before the Public Accounts Committee for a hearing on a report published by the Office of the Auditor General in October. The report examined how far various government entities had come following […]
