Follow-up on past PAC recommendations Report issued by the Auditor General
Government Needs to be More Responsive to the Recommendations Made By the Public Accounts Committee
The Cayman Islands Government has been slow to implement the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) recommendations, 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 June 2016 in response to its hearings into eight reports from the Auditor General’s office.
“Government’s progress with implementing the recommendations in the eight PAC reports is mixed,” Ms. Winspear notes. “Encouragingly, almost all recommendations have been implemented for four reports, but the picture for the other four reports is less positive with only some progress made for two reports and limited progress for the other two reports.”
The Auditor General adds, “This means that some important matters remain outstanding up to two years after my office made the original recommendation to government. For example, Government has twelve difference social assistance programmes but without a social assistance strategy or even clear criteria for some of these programmes, Government cannot be certain that the budget for welfare is being spent effectively. I understand that this Government is now prioritising social welfare improvements and I look forward to hearing about plans for future actions at the PAC session on 16th August.”
The report assesses government’s formal responses to the eight reports, provided in its Minute of October 2016, and whether it has implemented the PAC’s recommendations. It provides both a high-level and detailed assessment for each report.
“We found that the quality of government’s responses to PAC could be improved,” Ms. Winspear explains. “Some of the comments provided clear updates on progress against the recommendation, but many repeated much of what was said in response to the original OAG recommendation. This made it difficult to determine what, if any, action had been taken.”
More information about these reports can be obtained by contacting the Auditor General at (345) 244-3201 or Angela Cullen, Director of Performance Audit and report author, at (345) 244-3220.
