The members of the Cayman Islands Public Accounts Committee are planning to meet on 30th January to review the most recent audit report issued by the Office of the Auditor General. The Committee will be asking questions of government officials and anti-corruption bodies about the issues highlighted by the Auditor General in her report entitled “Fighting Corruption in the Cayman Islands”. The report assesses the effectiveness of the mechanisms put in place to prevent corruption.

“My committee members and I welcome the Auditor General’s findings,” said Mr. Ezzard Miller, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. “Despite Anti-Corruption legislation being introduced and an Anti-Corruption Commission being established the Cayman Islands continues to experience significant levels of corruption and the perception is that this is more widespread than reported.”

Mr. Miller noted that the Auditor General has concluded progress had been made in developing a national framework for fighting fraud and corruption in the Cayman Islands but a significant gap remains in the absence of the Standards in Public Life Law being brought in to force.

“As a Committee we are concerned that five years after the Legislative Assembly passing the Standards in Public Life Law it has still not been brought in to force,” said Mr. Miller. “Further amendments were made to this legislation but still it has not been enforced. This is unacceptable. Safeguards are needed to ensure that people involved in public life and are sitting on the boards of public bodies are operating with integrity and honesty. If they do not want to abide by the requirements of the legislation then they should not be appointed to these positions. We will be asking Government officials about this when they appear in front of the Committee at the end of January.”

Mr. Miller added “The Committee wants to hear from the anti-corruption bodies about their roles in preventing and fighting corruption. We will use the information from the hearings to support our own report to the Legislative Assembly.”

In accordance with the Legislative Assembly rules, the Public Accounts Committee’s own report will require the Government to respond within three months about how they will address the Auditor General’s findings and the recommendations made by the Committee.

The audit report noted above are available at: http://www.auditorgeneral.gov.ky