Governor Martyn Roper and Deputy Governor Franz Manderson have both expressed concern over the leaking of a yet-to-be-officially-published Auditor General report, saying the matter will be investigated.
Roper, in a statement on Tuesday evening, said his office and the Cayman Islands government remain committed to transparency.
“However, an unauthorised leak of an official document is a serious matter,” he said.
The report, which was obtained and published by Cayman News Service, looked into the work undertaken by the former Ministry of International Trade, Investment, Aviation and Maritime Affairs, to set up three Cayman Islands overseas offices.
The report claims the ministry, then under the remit of former Premier Alden McLaughlin, was in breach of the constitution and the Public Finance and Management Act when it signed agreements and contracts to open overseas offices in Hong Kong, Brussels and Washington, D.C., as well as attend the Dubai Expo, before and shortly after the 2021 general election, without the sufficient budget provision and parliamentary approval to do so.
Roper said the Auditor General’s report, provided at his request, “raises important matters that were already being addressed as part of the civil service’s response to the findings of the report”.
He declined to comment further on the matter.
“As this work is not yet complete, it would be inappropriate for me or any other Government representative to comment substantively on it at this stage. There are undoubtedly lessons to be learned from the OAG’s report. I will ensure that they are learned,” he stated.
Auditor General Sue Winspear, in the leaked report, concluded that though, as a UK overseas territory, Cayman follows the Westminster system of government, it does not have a similar policy that prevents new policies, procurements or commitments to major expenditures in the period running up to an election.
“In the absence of such an approach I therefore believe that a comprehensive pre-election policy and a set of protocols should be in place to guide the conduct of the civil service before, during and immediately after an election,” she said in her report, dated 10 Nov., 2021.
Manderson said the unauthorised leak of the report is “most unfortunate and unhelpful to the review currently in progress”.
He said the report has “rightly generated public interest”, however, with the matter currently under review, it limits what details can be shared at this time.
“As Head of the Civil Service, we remain committed to ensuring transparency while following the processes and policies in place to deal with such matters. As such I ask that the process is respected and allowed to be carried out without prejudice to preserve the integrity of the review. It is important for the public to be aware that there is an established review process for matters of this nature,” he said in the statement.
The report, he pointed out, has already been helpful to the civil service.
“We are developing a policy to guide the conduct of Civil Servants before, during and after an Election. This will include advice to Government on the role of elected representatives during the election period,” Manderson added.
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