From Cayman Islands Public Accounts Committee

The members of the Cayman Islands Public Accounts Committee are planning to meet to review the most recent audit report issued by the Office of the Auditor General. The Committee will be asking questions of government officials about the issues highlighted by the Auditor General in her report entitled “Workforce planning and management in the Cayman Islands Government”. The report assesses how effective the Government plans and manages its workforce to achieve its goals and strategic objectives and improve the quality of services delivered to citizens.

“I welcome the Auditor General’s findings,” said Mr. Ezzard Miller, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. “The Cayman Islands Government spends almost $250 million a year on staff, yet we are often told that there are insufficient resources to take forward the recommendations that we and the Auditor General make.”

Mr. Miller noted that the Auditor General has concluded that although a five-year strategic plan to become a world-class civil service has been developed and launched, the civil service is not doing enough to adequately plan what its workforce should look like in the future and needs to improve how it manages its workforce.

“Despite the development of a new five-year strategy for the civil service, the lack of planning for how many staff with what skills are needed to deliver good quality services to the people of the Cayman Islands both now and in the future is worrying,” Mr. Miller added “The PAC wants assurances that the civil service is taking action to ensure that it is creating sufficient training and job opportunities for Caymanians both now and in the future.”

“It is reassuring to hear that the basic tools are in place to manage staff.” Mr. Miller added “However, the Auditor General has also highlighted a number of areas where these can be improved. Not least the lack of up-to-date succession plans for Caymanians and the poor HR systems that are in place.”

The PAC Chair has also noted that the Auditor General had reported that although the Government lifted the pay freeze in 2017 it has yet to develop a new pay strategy.

“We expect the civil service to respond to this report urgently and have asked the Auditor General to follow up on it and report back on progress to the PAC at regular intervals.” said Mr. Miller.

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 is available at www.auditorgeneral.gov.ky.