$15M cut planned for civil service

A review team has recommended cutting CI$17 million across four government bodies, according to a newly released report.

Cabinet has agreed to CI$15.2 million of the cuts recommended by four review teams, Deputy Governor Donovan Ebanks told lawmakers at a Legislative Assembly meeting Monday.

Mr. Ebanks said the civil service review – done at the request of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office as one of the conditions for agreeing to let Cayman borrow $312 million – identified $17 million in potential savings over 12 to 36 months.

“To realise $15.2 million in savings from only four of the government’s 62 public-sector entities is a significant achievement,” Mr. Ebanks said.

Civil servants and members of the private sector carried out the review, which began in December 2009 and ended this March.

Mr. Ebanks said no civil servant reviewed his or her own department.

The first review phase included the prison service, the Department of Tourism, Public Works and the Cayman Islands National Insurance Company, known as CINICO, which together spend about $72 million annually.

The recommended cuts included shutting Fairbanks prison for women, introducing insurance co-pay for civil servants, and outsourcing the Cayman Jazz Fest event.

Among the recommended cuts are $7.5 million, or 15 per cent of current expenditure, from CINICO; a $2.2 million cut, equal to 20 per cent of current expenditure, in the Public Works Department; a $3.9 million, or 28 per cent of expenditure, in the prison service, and $3.5 million, or 12 per cent of expenditure from the Department of Tourism.

Please see more on this story in Wednesday’s Caymanian Compass…