Government oversight
Bidders on port prequalified, premier tells LA
(CNS): Bidders interested in constructing the controversial and costly cruise berthing facility in George Town have been prequalified, the premier revealed Friday, but gave away no details of which firms are involved. He also revealed that talks with the cruise lines over their committment are not finished. When he delivered the Budget Policy Statement, Alden […]
MLA urges HSA board to deal with HR issues
(CNS): Chris Saunders, the independent MLA for Bodden Town West, urged the Health Services Authority Board to deal with nepotism and incompetence among senior staff at the hospital, as he quizzed the board chairman and the CEO of the hospital about HR issues. During Tuesday’s Public Accounts Committee hearing, the second this month on the […]
Hospital has major turnaround in fee collection
(CNS): The hospital boss told the Public Accounts Committee Tuesday that there has been a dramatic improvement in collections at the Health Services Authority this year. HSA CEO Lizette Yearwood said that this month alone the collection of patient fees has more than doubled compared to the previous average monthly amount. With a week left […]
Lawyers hired to collect HSA debts
(CNS): As the hospital continues to battle with outstanding debt, officials told the Public Accounts Committee this week that a firm of local attorneys has been hired, following a request for proposals, to go after the outstanding cash, which may see people who haven’t paid their medical bills dragged through the courts. After two failed […]
Who will be fired over CarePay? Saunders asks
(CNS): Around a dozen public officials were involved in the contract for a hospital card payment system, CarePay, that eventually landed then HSA chair Canover Watson in jail, and during a Public Accounts Committee hearing on Tuesday MLA Chris Saunders wanted to know if anybody would be sacked over the scandal. Saunders, who was relentless […]
MLA takes aim at hospital’s management
(CNS): The representative for Bodden Town West made it clear he was far from impressed by the answers given to the Public Accounts Committee Tuesday by Health Services Authority bosses. Chris Saunders, who is an accountant, said the numbers in the hospital accounts simply did not add up and he had serious concerns about the […]
Ombudsman says FOI is ‘inalienable right’
(CNS):Â The new supra-ombudsman has said that the freedom of information is a vital part of government openness and transparency. Sandy Hermiston arrived in Cayman last month to take over the helm of the newly combined and challenging office of public service complains, police complaints, whistle-blowing and data protection. On Cayman’s Right to Know Day, she […]
Info bosses take longer to respond as requests increase
(CNS): The latest statistics from the Information Commissioner’s Office on the use of the Freedom of Information Law shows the number of requests made in 2016/17 increased by 21% on the previous year, which had seen a dramatic decline. But as the number of requests grew, the average time it took for information managers to […]
ICO takes immigration to task over FOI response
(CNS): In his latest decision concerning an FOI dispute, Acting Information Commissioner Jan Liebaers agreed with the Department of Immigration (DoI) about an exemption to release information concerning a fine imposed on an employer, but he took the department to task about how the freedom of information request had been handled.
DCFS boss says law boosted child abuse workload
(CNS): The number of reported cases of children being neglected or abused and at risk in some way has increased significantly since the introduction of mandatory reporting under the children’s law. Speaking recently to the Public Accounts Committee, Felicia Robinson, the director of the Department of Children and Family Services said that child protection was […]
Dear PAC: more on the Needs Assessment Unit
A former NAU employee writes: What! The ministry is responsible for NAU? This is news? Mr Miller, you should not be surprised about the NAU director calling out the ministry. I guess we can expect a new NAU director soon. As I have repeatedly and consistently said via this forum, the main problems with social […]
