Tag: Office of the Auditor General
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 […]
Officials blame consultants for $74M airport bill
(CNS): Airport bosses blamed the increased costs, delays and general mismanagement of the airport terminal project on the consultants when they appeared before the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday. With an expected final cost now of more than $74 million just for the terminal, around $22 million more than the original budget, Cayman Islands Airports […]
OAG: Budgets are opaque and complex
(CNS): The government’s budget process is neither effective nor transparent and needs significant improvement to make it more simple and accountable, the auditor general has said in her latest report. Sue Winspear said that limited progress has been made in addressing the concerns her office has raised for more than seven years about how government […]
Turtle farm accounts delayed by fraud case
(CNS): The delayed release of three years worth of the Cayman Turtle Centre’s accounts was due to a “very complex” audit resulting from financial irregularities uncovered in 2017, the Public Accounts Committee heard Wednesday. Four people have been charged with fraud-related offences in the case of corrupt procurement at the government-owned farm that has sucked […]
COVID-19 estimated cost is $46.7M
(CNS): The auditor general has found that government’s estimated spending and committed expenditure on the COVID-19 pandemic, as at 19 June, is CI$46.7 million. This unaudited estimate does not include lost revenue and is based on available information supplied by government. With more work to come on the wider costs of this healthcare crisis, Sue […]
OfReg exec jobs advertised day after PAC
(CNS): The timing of advertisements placed in the local print media for the executive director positions for both the ICT and electricity sectors at OfReg were “purely coincidental”, said the CEO Malike Cummings, and “not in any way tied to the incumbents’ testimonies during the current Public Accounts Committee”. The senior jobs held by Alee […]
OfReg set back ICT progress, says director
(CNS): The executive director responsible for the regulation of the telecommunications sector under the umbrella utilities regulator, OfReg, has said the creation of this entity had not only failed to meet public expectations but had also undermined the progress of ICT regulation and development. Alee Fa’amoe told the Public Accounts Committee that the creation of […]
OfReg costs more, fails to protect consumers
(CNS): Three years after the creation of OfReg, auditors have taken a close look at the beleaguered utilities regulator and found that it has cost more than its predecessors but has failed to address its fundamental purpose of consumer protection. Inconsistent leadership, limited governance and oversight, a lack of strategic planning and direction or understanding […]
Auditors keep eye on public cash
(CNS): A new report released by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) Tuesday outlines its plans to keep an eye on government’s handling of public cash during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this year’s audit plan has changed, Auditor General Sue Winspear said the document sets out the basic principles guiding the OAG and its […]
Gov’t bean counters make audit deadline
(CNS): Twenty-eight public sector entity audits have met the the 30 April statutory deadline and have all received unqualified audit opinions. Despite the disruption caused by the coronavirus to government business and the majority of offices being closed, over half the entities required to do so have completed their legal obligation, which Auditor General Sue […]
OfReg accused of wasting more public cash
(CNS) Updated with correction: The utilities regulator, OfReg, which has already faced criticisms for its lavish spending of public cash while failing to address any of the issues it was created to tackle, wasted well over CI$200,000 in 2018 on renting an office it never used. The regulator also exceeded its travel budget for that […]
