I suppose naivety led me to believe the Cayman Islands Government would at least take a close look at the appointees on Development and Control Boards after reading the planning and land use audit by Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick’s office.

If the Government have they have made no public comment even though the report has been in their hands for at least 4 weeks.

Swarbrick’s Report said there was secrecy in the way both the Development Control Board and the Central Planning Authority in Grand Cayman were operating. The meetings were not open and reasons for their findings that were often against the advice and recommendations of public authorities like Department of Environment and the Water Authority were not given.

Often members on these boards had conflicts of interest with developments that they had to approve or disapprove.

The Central Planning Authority, the Report highlighted, even disregarded technical advice from government agencies in the development of the Health City Cayman Islands and Kimpton hotel construction projects.

The most interesting one was the approval given by the Development Control Board to an extension to a quarry. The quarry operator was in breach of the license terms and the board were informed by the relevant authorities this had to be corrected immediately “as a condition of the application approval.” The board approved the application and only noted it had taken the concerns “into account.”

It was therefore with some bafflement and despair to learn the government announcement they had reappointed every single existing member to one of these boards. The Cayman Brac and Little Cayman Development Control Board has seen no change and all members will stay on until mid 2017!

Maybe it’s because Cayman Brac has a small population and it is difficult to find members willing to sit down and approve all the hundreds of developments in the works for the Sister Islands?

It will be very interesting to see what happens when the members of the new Grand Cayman Development Control Board are announced.

It will be even better if the Minister in charge makes a statement soon either agreeing or disagreeing with the Auditor General’s findings.