Tag: Finance Committee
Budget creaking under weight of COVID costs
(CNS): Government voted an additional CI$28.4 million for managing and administrating protocols surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic for this year, including quarantine and testing costs. In addition to paying people who are out of work as a result of the closed borders and supporting small businesses, the government is spending a significant amount on the isolation […]
MPs clear CI$3.5 million for wages in 2021
(CNS): Elected members ensured that they will all be paid their newly increased salaries and additional benefits this week when an amendment was added to the supplementary appropriations bill for the 2021 budget to vote for the cash required to cover the cost of running Parliament and their wages. Some CI$3.5 million has been set […]
Travellers need to justify journeys
(CNS): Anyone travelling overseas and returning to Cayman will now need to justify their reasons for travel, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said during Finance Committee Monday, after reminding the community that the borders remain closed until at least 9 September. Flights coming in and out of the country are still for essential journeys only and […]
Deficit also fuelled by non-COVID spending
(CNS): With revenue down by just under CI$70 million at the end of September and government spending on direct and indirect COVID-19 related costs expected to be around $80 million by the year end, the projected deficit of $168 million is not unexpected. But government had forecast a surplus of around CI$95 million by the […]
COVID-19 costs obscured in budget reshuffle
(CNS): Government has appropriated an additional CI$100 million in expenditure across various ministries as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the actual expenditure has been blurred in the re-budgeting of line items presented to Finance Committee this week, with government lumping COVID-19 related spending with other expenditure, using unspent allocated coronavirus cash on other […]
School project spending blurred in budget
(CNS): The total cost of the new John Gray High School development is forecast to be over CI$106 million, education ministry officials confirmed Wednesday during Finance Committee. But as the ministry sought the support of the committee for an additional $20 million to spend next year, the budgeting for the costly project became blurred when […]
Owen Roberts Airport project tops $100M
(CNS): What started as a $51 million upgrade to the terminal at Owen Roberts International Airport in 2014 is now a major project, running at more than $100 million, Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell told Finance Committee on Monday. And outlining the need for a bridging loan from the tourism ministry, Albert Anderson, the Chief Executive […]
Minister forecasts CI$168M gov’t deficit
(CNS): Finance Committee members heard that government is now forecasting a $168.7 million deficit by the end of this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As he opened the committee hearing for the appropriation changes to this year’s budget, Finance Minister Roy McTaggart delivered the bad financial news that everyone was expecting. He […]
Opposition MLAs vote ‘no’ to prison cash
(CNS): A lack of information about where government is spending more than $20 million at the prison, especially when it comes to rehabilitation, led to MLAs on the opposition benches voting against additional appropriations for HMCI Prison Service. But the prison director has said that there is a well established rehabilitation programme to ensure that, […]
Health insurance failings roll on
(CNS): The multiple problems associated with the failing health insurance system in Cayman was recently raised again in Finance Committee, but there are still no policy solutions on offer from the health minister. The original budget to cover tertiary healthcare costs for indigents and those with inadequate health cover for 2019 was CI$9.9 million but […]
New garbage trucks get DEH back on track
(CNS): The long-awaited delivery of new garbage trucks has been received by the Department of Environmental Health, and according to DEH Director Richard Simms, all of them were expected to be on the road this week with five new drivers starting work. Simms said that the department was well, if not fully, equipped and was […]
