News

The Cayman Islands Government (CIG) acknowledges the latest report from the Office of the Auditor General (OAG): Follow-up on past PAC recommendations 2022 – Report 2 (February 2022). This report examines the responses of the CIG to the following three previously tabled reports:

1.         Major Capital Projects Follow Up (October 2017)

2.         Customs in the Cayman Islands (May 2019)

3.         School Education (October 2019)

In total, the three reports included 54 recommendations, of which only one was not accepted.  Of these, 20 have been implemented, and a further 26 have been partly implemented or are in progress. Only seven have been identified as not having made any progress.

Sharing his thoughts on the overall report, Deputy Governor, Mr. Franz Manderson commented: “I welcome the Auditor General’s observations that the progress noted in the report was impactful in many areas, especially recognising that this work would have been challenged by a number of factors, including the global COVID-19 pandemic and its ongoing trickle-down effect on human resources and other matters.  Nevertheless, the recommendations from the OAG are important opportunities for the Civil Service to improve our operations and services, and this latest report shows that a significant amount of work remains to be accomplished.”

Going forward, the Deputy Governor explained that he has tasked his office with working with Chief Officers to improve the quality and timeliness of responses to the Auditor General reports in general. Mr Manderson has also committed to the PAC to improve the timeliness of the submissions of Government Minutes for tabling in the Parliament and to address any outstanding Government Minutes by March 2022. This work is well-advanced and the three Government Minutes due in March 2022 have already been submitted for Caucus/Cabinet review.

In this latest OAG report, the Ministry of Education received positive reviews based on the School Education report, with the OAG noting that a majority of the 21 recommendations have been implemented or are in progress, despite the significant impact of COVID-19 over the past two years.

Ministry of Education Chief Officer, Cetonya Cacho, commented, “I am incredibly proud of the teams in the Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and our schools. The impact of COVID-19 in March 2020 meant that all our teams had to quickly transition from in-school to remote learning and reprioritize our focus on the health and safety of our students and staff.

“Since the education performance audit, our teams have implemented many of the recommendations whilst managing student safety and COVID-related absences, developing and implementing new COVID-19 policies and guidance, and implementing a lateral flow test distribution process for public and private schools.”

CO Cacho added, “Throughout this process students have continued to make progress and achieve at high academic levels. For example, 208 of 337 public high school graduates earned diplomas with 'Honours' and 'High Honours' in 2021. We find value in the recommendations from the audit and will continue our implementation process to further improve the education system for our students and by extension, the wider community. “

In the review of the Customs in the Cayman Islands recommendations, the OAG noted a ‘mixed picture’, specifically that ‘Customs and Border Control has fully implemented about half of the recommendations assigned’ despite some challenges remaining in place since first noted in 2015.

Commenting on the report, CBC Director, Charles Clifford stated, “The Customs and Border Control Service acknowledges the importance of reports and recommendations from the OAG in helping to improve business processes and accountability. We have made good progress on implementing the recommendations in the OAG’s report. Central to our work in this area is the finalisation and publication of our CBC Five Year Strategic Plan 2022 - 2026. The impetus for our plan is our transition to an Intelligence-Led Risk Management Culture, but the plan will also assist us significantly in facilitating the implementation of the outstanding recommendations in the report.

“Our Strategic Plan was produced in-house by our Senior Management Team through the facilitation of CIG’s Management Support Unit. We are very proud of this achievement which represents significant cost savings for the CIG. I sincerely thank our Senior Management Team and staff for their input and focused engagement on this project even as we simultaneously worked on mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on our country. We remain engaged in and committed to the unfinished work to implement the outstanding recommendations in the OAG’s report.” 

The OAG also noted that ‘significant progress’ was made in implementation of the recommendations in the Major Capital Projects Follow Up report despite major changes in the senior management in these areas.

Acting Director of PWD, Troy Whorms, noted that his department “looks forward to working with the Ministry of Finance and the Governments Senior Responsible Officers to streamline our Capital Development Projects through the budget process to project completion.”

The Financial Secretary, Ken Jefferson stated, “The Ministry of Finance will coordinate publication of information on major capital expenditure, in the Government’s Quarterly Report. Major capital expenditure represents a significant portion of the Government’s annual budget, and this will improve transparency and enhance accountability to the public. We are committed to continually improving the quality of financial information to support decision making at all levels of Government.”

To read the report in its entirety, please visit https://bit.ly/3vsdbAc.