It seemed a good idea at the time and it helped the Cayman Islands government to submit a balanced budget with a small surplus. However the budget is already in shreds and already the Government has warned there will be an expected deficit at the end of this year. And this deficit that the recent Financial Committee meeting announced did not include this “good idea”.

The “good idea” was to sell off the Water Authority’s sewerage treatment system for $20 million and that’s Cayman Islands dollars. The only problem is “problems with the tendering.”

Governor HE Duncan Taylor said on Friday (20) there was very little chance of divesting the sewerage system plant during this fiscal year.

Ever since the United Democratic Party government came to power they have been trying to find a buyer for the sewerage system but the tendering process has been a mess with issues ranging from varying allegations and irregularities.

The Governor made a similar statement regarding this to the one concerning the China Harbour Engineering Company’s negotiations for the cruise ship terminals facility.

“There is a very clear process set out on the divestment of assets and the first stage would be a clear business plan,” he said. “Any divestment of public sector assets must be conducted under a specific process. The UK does not object to the principle of the Cayman Islands government selling assets to raise revenue when there is a business case but it has to be in line with the commitments made in the framework.”

The original tendering process was stopped because of queries raised by ministry officials, the Water Authority Board and the Central Tenders Committee.

Does this mean that this project will have to be re-tendered and all the work done so far will now go down the drain?