All of us constantly hear homage paid by government
officials to transparency.
But rarely are those words translated into action.
So it’s not surprising that an unknown source left a KPMG
report concerning the George Town cruise berthing proposal on the windscreen of
one of our journalist’s vehicles.
West Bay MLA Ellio Solomon goes to great lengths to tell us
that the report isn’t worth the paper it’s written on because, he says, the
information the report is based on is bogus.
He says the report was leaked because someone is trying to
put a kink into existing negotiations.
But the information the report was based on did come from
somewhere – the Port Authority Board. Most of the members of that board have
since resigned their positions.
While Mr. Solomon refutes the report, we wish he would spend
more time making the public aware of what exactly has been agreed in regards to
the development of a berthing facility at George Town Harbour.
He tells us that China Harbour has no intention of charging
cruise passengers $35 a head in fees, but he won’t tell us what the exact
figure is going to be; only that it will be less than the $18 or so a head that
GLF had proposed.
The report alludes to a cash injection for the Turtle Farm,
which Mr. Solomon says he knows nothing about. But obviously someone came up
with the idea and passed the information along to KPMG.
The people of the Cayman Islands – especially the voters who
put the politicians in their seats – deserve more information about ongoing
projects such as the berthing facility.
There are too many projects that are still being touted
without the public being made aware of necessary information. They include the
ongoing building of the Clifford Hunter and John Gray high schools, the
landfill, Shetty Hospital and others.
The days of government operating in secrecy should be over.
By remaining opaque and refusing to be transparent government is just inviting
speculation and Marl Road rumours and then gets testy because it has to refute
bad information.
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