UPM stalled work on economic plan because of election
(CNS): The first steps taken by the finance ministry to begin shaping a sustainable economic development plan for the Cayman Islands were stalled by the UPM administration back in August 2024 because the caucus decided that it wasn’t appropriate even to do the early groundwork because there was to be an election this year.
Financial Secretary Ken Jefferson told the Public Accounts Committee last week that a Cabinet paper he submitted on the approach the ministry’s management team believed would be needed to develop such a plan was sent back to the ministry to defer until after the election.
Jefferson explained the paper outlined just the early stages of how the ministry could develop the plan.
A few months later, in November 2024, the Office of the Auditor General published a report on Government’s Approach to Sustainable Economic Development, which found that the failure of successive governments to develop an overall strategic economic plan is putting its future at risk.
Even though Cayman’s economy is strong, largely due to the financial services sector, Auditor General Sue Winspear warned in the report that the high cost of living and poor overall general management of Cayman’s economic fortunes left it vulnerable and threatened its stability.
Answering questions on the report, Jefferson said that developing such a plan would be a “massive” undertaking and would need the input of civil servants, technocrats and consultants as well as the relevant ministers. The document outlining the approach the ministry would take to draft a plan to shape Cayman’s economic diversity and manage risks to its economic growth in the coming years never reached the Cabinet because the next government might not agree with the approach.
However, Jefferson said he believed that, given the size of the undertaking, it would be best if such a plan was started at the beginning of a new government term and led by ministers. He pointed out that such a plan has to align with the new administration’s policy priorities and would depend on what it wants to achieve.
The financial secretary also said that economic diversity would be one of the plan’s key features but noted that over the years, “economic diversification has proven to be quite elusive to governments”.
As a result, this is another issue voters can ask candidates about, in addition to the missing National Development Plan, to give them an idea of how their representatives see the future.
The next government will be tasked with assessing the priorities that they think will help Cayman’s economy prosper while ensuring that Caymanians benefit from development and understand the risks that the economy is facing.
Potential risks can come from a variety of sources, such as another pandemic, climate change and sea-level rise, global economic shocks such as the anticipated rise in inflation, and threats to Cayman’s successful and critically important financial service sector.
However, as noted by Jefferson, perhaps one of the hardest issues that a new government will need to consider is economic diversification that would insulate the Cayman Islands economy from global risks and internal turmoil.
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See the list of candidates and their party affiliations here.
Category: Election News
Ken Jefferson has admitted to falsifying the CIG Balance Sheet for YEARS. It’s not because of this election. It’s because the true numbers of the Balance Sheet omissions are horrifying, and disqualifying. Believe the Auditor General when she tells us.
Absurdistani School of Governance—is to drag everyone else down with you.
At this point, the UPM isn’t just a sinking ship—it’s actively taking a jackhammer to the hull while setting the life rafts on fire.
Why Would They Stall an Economic Plan When They’re Already Doomed?
1. They Need the Next Government to Inherit a Disaster
• If they’re going down, they want to make sure no one can easily clean up their mess.
• By ensuring there’s no economic strategy in place, they can later blame the next administration for “not fixing things fast enough.”
2. They’re Betting on Short-Term Distractions Instead of Policy
• Long-term planning? Too much effort.
• Empty campaign promises? Much easier.
• Dragging out controversial bills, stirring division, and clinging to power? The only strategy left.
• This is classic “Let’s fight about everything except the actual issues” politics.
3. They’ve Convinced Themselves They Can Still Win
• Delusion is a powerful thing.
• They’re blinded by their own echo chamber, convinced that if they just delay, deflect, and manipulate enough, they can somehow reverse the inevitable.
• News flash: They can’t. The public already knows.
4. They Need to Hide Their Failures for as Long as Possible
• If an economic plan is properly developed, it would expose just how much damage they’ve done.
• The moment actual policy discussions begin, the narrative shifts to “Why did you leave us in this mess?”
Final Verdict: They Are Politically Braindead, But Still Twitching
At this stage, UPM is in the late stages of rigor mortis, but instead of quietly accepting their fate, they’re making sure everyone watches them rot in real-time.
• They can’t govern.
• They can’t plan.
• They can’t campaign on results.
• They can only stall, distract, and throw tantrums.
And when they finally get voted out?
They’ll act shocked, claim they were “victims of an unfair political system,” and blame everyone but themselves.
This is governance at its most self-destructive.
Speaking of plans, thank you for putting up an elections section CNS.
Is there any chance that if and when any candidates issues a manifesto it could be put up somewhere in the election section so that the electorate can more easily compare candidates?
CNS: Yes. I’m also planning to list the major issues and trying to find out where they all stand on them. Feel free to suggest some major issues – and anything else you’d like to see in the Election Section.
Thank you!
Some major issues from my perspective include:
election financing and the control of political decision making by special interests, that leads to:
out-of-control immigration and development that does not benefit Caymanians,
the destruction of our environment,
imported poverty,
our declining quality of life and rising stress levels,
our collapsing infrastructure,
rising crime,
imported poverty and the resulting dependence on handouts culture,
our failing education system which seems to be more about building monuments for politicians than anything else,
the massive and rapidly increasing national debt facing us and our children that has been brought about by politicians who have no understanding of economics or anything else.
It would be great if you can persuade election candidates to directly address any of these issues with direct statements of their solutions rather than more waffle.
CNS: I can try!
Add
1. Do you support building piers for cruise ship? Then expand on your yes/no response.
2. Do you support proposed changes in the Environmental Protection Law? Same as above.
Ganja. I’m not for it but we need to know the party’s views on it.
OMOV
Either they saw the word ‘sustainable’ and recognized that the sale of duty concessions and other decisions to special interests was not sustainable, or the Cabinet paper was more than 1 page long, had no pictures to color in and had some words with more than 1 syllable.
shocking incompetence but hardly surprising seeing the performance of all government members over the last 4 years.
any comment mrs governor?
any comment chamber of commerce?
Stalled from August!
Butvthey didn’t stall that school or giving Millionaire Status Holders to get Duty Free SMB property from last week tho.
To 11:23am: Fully aware that there can be breaches, however your comment re. SMB that stamp duty exception is intended to be only for Caymanians.