The Cayman Islands Government is implementing some of the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) recommendations but overall progress is still slow, Auditor General of the Cayman Islands, Sue Winspear, says in her report issued today.

The report “Follow-up on past PAC recommendations,” assesses how effectively the government has implemented recommendations made by the PAC in response to its hearings into reports from the Auditor General’s Office.

“Government’s progress with implementing recommendations made by the PAC is mixed,” Ms. Winspear notes. “Almost all recommendations have been implemented for two reports, but the picture for the other six reports is less positive with only some progress made for five reports and limited progress made for the report dealing with social welfare programmes”. Winspear continues “I am also concerned that some of the original recommendations with limited or no progress to date, go back as far as May 2015 and that implementation dates for some recommendations continue to be rescheduled into the future.”

The report assesses whether government has implemented the PAC’s recommendations in eight reports. It assesses the government’s formal responses to four PAC reports tabled between March 2017 and March 2018, provided in its Minute of June 2018. It also assesses progress with four reports that the Office of the Auditor General previously assessed as limited or some progress in summer 2017. The report provides both a high-level and detailed assessment for each report.

“It is encouraging that government has committed to providing more timely and appropriate responses to PAC recommendations and has assigned responsibility to the Ministry of Finance for coordinating responses from across government,” Ms. Winspear explains. “The quality of management responses has improved since last year.”

The Auditor General adds. “However, overall progress with implementing the recommendations remains slow. This means that some important areas of public services remain waiting for recommended improvements to happen.”

This report and the original OAG reports on which this report is based are available at www.auditorgeneral.gov.ky.

NOTES:

1. The Public Accounts Committee considers reports made by the Auditor General and generally endorse
the recommendations made by the Auditor General in her report and make further recommendations of their own based on the witness hearings they hold at the time.
2. The Cayman Islands Government is required to formally respond to the PAC recommendations within three months of the PAC laying an Auditor General report in the House.
3. The OAG has assessed Government as having made significant progress with the following two reports: • “Follow-Up on past PAC recommendations and Governance in Aviation Bodies (July 2017)” • “National Land Development and Government Real Property (June 2015)”
4. The OAG has assessed Government as having made some progress with the following five reports: • “Ensuring Quality Health Care and a Healthy Population (January 2017)” • “Review of the Cayman Islands Health Services Authority Financial Statements for 2015 and 2016” • “Social Assistance Programs: Follow-Up on Past PAC Recommendations (July 2017)” • “Financial and Performance reporting – Entire Public Sector; Statutory Authorities and
Government Companies; and Ministries, Portfolios and Offices for the years ending 30 June 2013
and 2014 (September 2015)” • “Collecting Government Revenues (September 2015)”
5. The OAG has assessed Government as having made limited progress with the following one report: • “Government Programmes Supporting Those in Need (May 2015)”