Tag: Garnet Harrison
PAC pats CFOs on back for ‘job well done’
(CNS): Chief financial officers from government departments were congratulated by the chair of the Public Accounts Committee this week for a “job well done” after achieving clean audits for the first time since government changed its accounting system more than 12 years ago. Although appearing before PAC is not often a pleasant experience for senior […]
New auditor general to ‘help’ CIG manage public cash
(CNS): The new auditor general, who took up the post at the government watchdog on Friday, has said that while the office is meant to hold government to account, she also plans to help it manage public resources and deliver effective services. Sue Winspear, who succeeds Alastair Swarbrick and acting auditor Garnet Harrison, comes to […]
UK public auditor to lead local office
(CNS): A long serving British civil servant who has been part of the management team at the UK’s National Audit Office has been appointed as Cayman’s new auditor general. The governor’s office revealed that Sue Winspear has been appointed and has accepted the post following the departure last year of Alastair Swarbrick. Winspear is currently […]
Jefferson to lead on government books
(CNS): Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson has been formally identified as the person to take charge of core government’s overall financial reporting, the deputy governor has confirmed. After years of warnings from the Office of the Auditor General that a leader had to be appointed to deal with the ongoing weaknesses in government accounting, Franz Manderson told […]
Challenges ahead for port bosses
(CNS): The Port Authority of the Cayman Islands (PACI) is still battling with issues relating to its accounts, which could spell trouble ahead for the authority if it becomes the main entity to manage the proposed cruise dock development and the collection of the taxes which will cover the costly project. In the recent report on […]
Cash wasted on ‘futile’ accounts
(CNS): Without the annual reports that explain the financial statements produced by public authorities and ministries, the Cayman Islands Government continues to waste public money on meaningless accounts, officials from the Office of the Auditor General have implied. They said the failure of most government entities to provide any supporting reports with their financial statements […]
High school value loss could be as much as $40M
(CNS): Last week the auditor general said that the value of the Clifton Hunter High School was at least $20 million less than it cost to build it but another report revealed today indicates that that the discrepancy may be double that figure. The latest report from the Office of the Auditor General reviewing the […]
CIG ignoring serious liabilities
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government has failed to include some $1.3 billion of liabilities for post-retirement healthcare benefits and pension liabilities for civil servants in its recently completed consolidated accounts. Among the many problems identified the auditor general in the first ever Entire Public Sector (EPS) financial statements, the problem of unaccounted liabilities contributed to […]
Leadership remains weak point for CIG accounts
(CNS): The adverse opinion issued by the auditor general on the government’s full set of annual accounts for the year-ending June 2014 is mostly down to a lack of leadership in the financial function at the centre of public accounting in the economics and finance ministry. Falling short of describing government’s problem as a skills […]
First EPS in a decade gets failing grade
(CNS): After ten years of trying, the first auditable set of consolidated government accounts have been given a failing grade by the auditor general. The entire public sector financials were given an adverse opinion for a catalogue of reasons, Alastair Swarbrick said in the report he completed before he departed. Despite the efforts and focus […]
Work permit system too complex to be efficient
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Department of Immigration collects more than 11% of the government’s entire revenue, well over $70 million per year, but the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has raised concerns that the overly-complex work permit fee system is undermining its ability to collect money owed. In the latest report from the OAG examining […]
