Tag: Kenneth Jefferson
Parliament rubber stamps UPM’s $51.8M extra spending
(CNS): Parliament has given the OK for the government to add $51.8 million in extra spending to this year’s budget. On Friday, Finance Committee went through the long list of new expenditures, including $35.4 million in operating expenses and $16.4 million in capital expenditures.
EY lands $1.2 million contract to reform CIG budget
(CNS): The government recently awarded a contract worth more than CI$1.2 million to reform and modernise the way the government does its budget. The local consultants have been asked to help implement an outcome-based budgeting and reporting framework that includes a system to support the preparation and reporting process. For years, the Office of the […]
CIG still dodging CI$2.2B CS retirees healthcare liability
(CNS): At a Public Accounts Committee meeting on Thursday, senior officials once again dodged questions on how and when the Cayman Islands Government proposes to place its liability for the future healthcare needs of retired civil servants squarely on its books. This financial liability is currently only included in supporting notes that form part of […]
Reporting $2.1B liability would create huge deficits
(CNS): Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson has said that putting the Cayman Islands Government’s future liability for post-retirement civil service healthcare costs firmly on its books would create massive annual deficits for public finances. But until it fully reports and accounts for these future expenses, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) will continue to give […]
Gaps remain in management of major projects
(CNS): In the first three months of 2022 the Cayman Islands Government spent more than CI$15.7 million on major capital projects and roads, but few of the recommendations about oversight of public developments made by the Office of the Auditor General more than five years ago have been implemented.
PACT preparing new policy on duty waivers
(CNS) The Cayman Islands Government is working on a new policy that is likely to upend the traditional approach to duty waivers and other concessions. Premier Wayne Panton told CNS that past administrations had given up revenue in exchange for jobs or to boost economic activity. But Cayman’s priorities have changed, he said, and PACT […]
Budget forecasts can improve, Jefferson admits
(CNS): Government’s tendency to underestimate how much revenue it expects to collect is the result of “human nature” and a deliberate desire on the part of successive administrations in recent years to avoid the risk of a deficit and to take a conservative approach to spending ahead of the budget, only to spend the extra […]
Customs boss to face MPs on failures over improvements
(CNS): Customs and Border Control Director Charles Clifford is one of several senior government officials due to face the Public Accounts Committee today (Wednesday) to explain why many of the recommendations made by the Office of the Auditor General have not been implemented. A report published in February highlighted the fact that the CBC has […]
Ministries still failing to report on cash collected
(CNS): Two of government’s most senior accountants, Financial Secretary Ken Jefferson and Accountant General Matthew Tibbetts, told Finance Committee Tuesday that work is underway to get each ministry to properly report on the coercive revenue they collect on their own books. Currently, funds that government entities collect from members of the public and businesses appear […]
FS warns of long road to modernise CIG budget
(CNS) Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson has accepted that the current budget system doesn’t make the important link to show how public cash being spent by government is achieving its stated policies. The system is based on outputs rather than outcomes, which does not help people understand the real performance of government, he explained, but said […]
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 […]
