Clifton Hunter doubles price tag

The Cayman Islands Government’s Public Accounts Committee heard this week the Clifton Hunter High School in Frank Sound has cost $110M, which is double the original budgeted cost of $55M.

Hon. McKeeva Bush, Leader of the Opposition said, “It is no more than what I expected. Certain contractors said it could not cost what they were saying and so some contractors would not bid. And so my administration had to find the where with all to do so. It’s not a matter of having the facilities and certainly as the UK is telling us now, it’s what you can afford. And therefore, it’s because of all of this is where we are with our budget.

Employment Minister says 200 hotel jobs available for Caymanians

Hon. Tara Rivers said on CITN/Cayman27’s television talk show “The Panel” last Tuesday (17) there could be up to two hundred hotel jobs available for Caymanians in the coming weeks due to a partnership between her ministry and employers in the tourism sector.

“Those are actually persons who are unemployed who are registered with the National Workforce Development Agency. We’ve got a list of those jobs from the various tourism partners, they’re calling clients and setting up opportunities. So hopefully in 6-8 weeks people will be in a job that they are currently not in,” she said.

CPI continues to increase

Cayman Islands Consumer Price Index (CPI) continues to rise according to the latest figures from the Economics and Statistics Office.

Health Index arose by 1.6%

Education Index arose by 5.0%

and

Alcohol and tobacco by a whopping 13.3%. This was due to an increase in the duty on tobacco implemented in September last year.

There was one good piece of news, though. Housing and Utilities dropped. The drop, though was small, only 0.4% and this was due to actual rentals being lower on average during the second quarter of last year. A bad sign, actually, showing the economy is still shrinking.

Brac blackouts continue

The Brac Power and Light Company encountered their third major blackout to Cayman Brac in seven days due to lightning strikes.

The latest occurred last Tuesday (17) when the company received a direct hit when one of the main high voltage lines at the power company was struck.

Chamber and Digicel to award Business Excellence

The Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Digicel will award the Business Excellence Award

This is to provide outstanding local business with peer and community recognition for their efforts.

Wil Pineau, Chamber’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “There’s some stereotypes about the roles that businesses play in the community and basically we wanted to recognise those businesses in: small business, medium to larger business, that really are important contributors to our society. They’re the ones that create jobs, they’re the ones that bring new opportunity, they’re the ones that bring innovation into the market place and really without the success of business in our community. Really a lot of the things we enjoy here the standard of living the quality of life really wouldn’t be what it is today.”

The Chamber is encouraging the public to nominate businesses ranging from one employee to those with more than 20.

3 person Central Procurement Office to be formed

Deputy Governor, Hon. Franz Manderson, announced last Tuesday (17) at the Public Accounts Committee that the government will be looking into creating a three person Central Procurement Office to be headed up by a Director of Procurement.

Approximately $350,000 has already been budgeted for this office. It will be responsible for establishing new laws and procedures, oversight and post-implementation reviews.

This has been based on recommendations made by Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick in his report about how government currently manages these projects and the public cash spent on them.

Major engineering work required to fix the MAYA-1 Cable

LIME, Cayman’s largest telecommunications firm has said major engineering work will be required to repair the MAYA-1 Cable.

The damaged part of the cable that links the seven countries in the region, has been found to be 145 metres off the coast of Grand Cayman at the Half Moon Bay “Beach Manhole”. This will mean that segment of the cable will be beached and repaired here commencing Friday (20) and should be completed Tuesday (24).

The cable ship Pacific Guardian (PACG) will carry out the work.

There should be minimal interruption to local communication channels as traffic will be routed on the Cayman-Jamaica Fibre System.

In a Press Release LIME said:

“The repair operation will follow a similar plan to the original installation which took place in November 1999.  The cable will be floated in from the cable ship and laid parallel to the existing cable. Extreme care will be taken to preserve coral and marine wildlife of the area, as well as designated tourist dive sites.”

“The cable ship Pacific Guardian (PACG) will be arriving in Grand Cayman and the work to repair the fault will commence on Friday 20th and continue until Tuesday 24th September. To facilitate the repair this segment of the MAYA-1 Cable will be shut down for the duration of the repair period; during this time affected traffic on this segment will be routed on the Cayman Jamaica Fibre System (CJFS).”