Premier Wayne Panton has stood by his internal memo calling for cost-cutting measures for the remainder of the fiscal year, saying that it “represents strong, proactive fiscal management”.
Panton, in an emailed statement following a Cayman Compass article on the memo, confirmed that he wrote the document and that the contents were not “directed against or supportive of any particular project”.
“We continue to focus on the cost of living, traffic, education, housing, healthcare, facilitating a strong and resilient economy and ensuring our natural and built environment can support thriving communities. We continue to put the Caymanian people front and centre of all our decision-making,” he said.
Through his memo, Panton, who is also the finance minister, told civil service leaders to help slash almost $50 million from the government’s budget by the end of the year as public spending neared the $1 billion mark.
Panton, in the memo to chief officers and financial officers and copied to Cabinet ministers, parliamentary secretaries and caucus members, said “hard decisions” would have to be made to “achieve affordable financial targets and ensure compliance with the principles of fiscal responsibility”.
The premier did not respond to the concerns raised by both Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart and Bodden Town West MP Chris Saunders over the increased expenditures within government.
McTaggart said it would be a ‘huge task’ to cut $47.1 million from the budget over the last four months of 2023. Saunders said, in his view, the 11 Aug. memo should have been issued sooner rather than later given current costs.
However, Panton contended that issuing the memo was “the responsible action to take and guidance memos are hardly unusual in government”.
“The $977 million target sought for Operating Expenditures for the 2023 financial year, is realistic and reasonable considering that such expenditures totalled approximately $970 million in 2022,” he said.
Panton pointed out that “positive financial outcomes should not simply be left to chance; they need to be carefully planned and managed and even more so with an organisation as large as a Government”.
He said that while careful planning and management may not be a guarantee for budget compliance, “whatever the outcomes, these outcomes are required to be published within a framework of statutory reporting requirements to facilitate full transparency for the public”.
Panton concluded by taking aim at those who leaked the memo.
“Although it is unfortunate that some may take their oaths of confidentiality lightly, it is more important that whoever shared that memo with the public is implementing the adjustments suggested in the memo,” he said.
Related Videos
