News

His Excellency The Governor Martyn Roper and Deputy Governor Hon. Franz Manderson have issued the following statements in response to the unauthorised leak of the Office of the Auditor General’s Report regarding work by the former Ministry of International Trade, Investment, Aviation and Maritime Affairs to set up overseas offices.

The statements are as follows:

His Excellency The Governor

I can assure the public that my office and the Cayman Islands Government remain committed to transparency. However, an unauthorised leak of an official document is a serious matter and will be investigated. The Auditor General's report, provided at my request, raises important matters that were already being addressed as part of the civil service's response to the findings of the report. As this work is not yet complete, it would be inappropriate for me or any other Government representative to comment substantively on it at this stage. There are undoubtedly lessons to be learned from the OAG’s report. I will ensure that they are learned.

Deputy Governor

I am aware that the recent Auditor General report regarding the former Ministry of Investment, Trade, Investment, Aviation and Maritime Affairs is now in the public domain. The unauthorised leak of the report is most unfortunate and unhelpful to the review currently in progress.

The report has rightly generated public interest. However, due to this matter currently being under review, it limits what can be shared at this time.

As Head of the Civil Service, we remain committed to ensuring transparency while following the processes and policies in place to deal with such matters. As such I ask that the process is respected and allowed to be carried out without prejudice to preserve the integrity of the review.

It is important for the public to be aware that there is an established review process for matters of this nature.

The report has already been helpful to the Civil Service and we are developing a policy to guide the conduct of Civil Servants before, during and after an Election. This will include advice to Government on the role of elected representatives during the election period.

(GIS)