After years of frustrating delays, the Cayman Islands National Recovery Fund recently received a portion of the money from the European Commission for rebuilding homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Ivan.
Cayman Islands Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson signs the Hurricane Ivan reconstruction project financing agreement. |
The most recent delay concerned difficulties in meeting certain banking guarantees required by the EC. In order to sidestep that requirement, the National Recover Fund only received €975,000 (CI$1.18 million) of the €7 million (CI$8.8 million) it will ultimately receive from the EC.
Future payments will also be made in increments of less than €1 million. National Recovery Fund Executive Director Mark Laskin said PricewaterhouseCoopers would conduct programme reviews after each tranche was spent to satisfy the EC the money was used properly. Then another tranche of less than €1 million would be made.
Mr. Laskin said the plan is for PwC to conduct its reviews after 70 per cent of the previous tranche was spent.
‘I think the EC agrees with this,’ he said. ‘Nobody wants to see the work stop and start [waiting for more money].
‘Hopefully, this process will go quickly.’
The National Recovery Fund had more than 1,900 applications for assistance after it was formed in the wake of Hurricane Ivan, which severely impacted Grand Cayman on 11-12 September 2004.
Using money it raised through a variety of fundraisers, donations and government grants, the NRF has re-built some 650 homes and helped another 400 households with furnishings, appliances or minor repairs, Mr. Laskin said.
Another 30 homes that were completely destroyed or heavily damaged remain to be rebuilt.
Once those are completed, the NRF has approval to assist indigent people who were displaced by Hurricane Ivan, many of whom are living in the trailers brought in on a temporary basis after Hurricane Ivan. The government has agreed to allocate land for these people in the parcels identified for the affordable housing initiative in each of Grand Cayman’s districts.
Mr. Laskin said the jobs for the first €975,000 are going to bid now.
‘We have 20 pre-qualified contractors and we hope to increase that to 30,’ he said, adding that the process will require bids from three pre-qualified contractor on each home to meet EC requirements.
Because the process in getting the EC funds took as long as it did, the Cayman Islands Government ended up funding a lot of the reconstruction and repair of homes damaged by Hurricane Ivan. As a result, the EC has allowed the ambit of the recovery project it is funding to widen.
Mr. Laskin said the NRF will now be able to look at some preventive measures for homes it worked on.
‘Any one home we spent $5,000 or more on, we’re going back and putting [hurricane] shutters on the house.’
Mr. Laskin said that by putting up hurricane shutter on homes the NRF was protecting its original investment into the house.
Two weeks ago, Head of Delegation of the European Commission to Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands Ambassador Marco Mazzocchi Alemanni visited Cayman to sign the second financing agreement in relation to the €7 million coming from the EC. Financial Secretary Kenneth Jefferson signed the agreement on behalf of the Cayman Islands Government.
The signing of the second financing agreement concluded Government’s long effort of more than two years to get assistance from the EC for repair and reconstruction of housing impacted by Hurricane Ivan.
Cabinet Secretary Orrett Connor praised his office’s Christina Rowlandson for her efforts in seeing the process through.
‘You wouldn’t believe everything she had to do,’ he said. ‘She was very persistent.’
Ms Rowlandson said the EC gave her positive indications from the beginning and she always believed the agreement would be finalised.
‘I kept persisting,’ she said. ‘They gave us a lot of bureaucratic deadlines and we met all of those.’
Since this was the first time for the Cayman Islands to interact with the EC on such a matter, the process ventured into new territory for both parties. Ms. Rowlandson thinks the experience will help make future interactions between the Cayman Islands and EC go more smoothly.
‘Hopefully, this will make the process simpler in the future,’ she said. ‘It shouldn’t take so long next time.’
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