The Public Accounts Committee has moved its next hearing to September due to conflicts with witnesses’ schedule and the upcoming sitting of Parliament.
This latest delay means PAC will wait until the 5 Sept. meeting to hear what plans government has in place to address Caymanian employment issues. At that meeting, the committee is expected to review the Auditor General’s performance report, ‘Improving Employment Prospects for Caymanians (May 2024)’.
Originally, the PAC meeting was scheduled for 20 June. However, that hearing was postponed as there were not enough committee members available.
Member Joey Hew, who was off island, and members Bernie Bush and McKeeva Bush could not make that meeting.
The hearing was then moved to Thursday, but prior to the scheduled start, a statement from Parliament announced the lengthy postponement.
It said the rescheduled hearing was in order to accommodate witness schedules, as well as the upcoming fourth meeting of the 2023-2024 Session of Parliament, and the committee’s summer recess.
Wesley Howell, chief officer for the Ministry of Border Control, Labour and Culture is expected to appear before the committee during the next meeting, as well as Jeremy Scott, director of Workforce Opportunities & Residency Cayman (WORC), and Lyneth Monteith, acting chief officer for the Ministry of Education.
The Auditor General’s report had expressed concern about the need to better protect and predict employment prospects for Caymanians.
The government spent $144 million on improving Caymanians’ employment prospects between 2019 and 2023, according to the report.
The report also found that the Cayman Islands job market is proving strong in some areas, reaching ‘full employment’ by global standards, but also had hurdles for those seeking work, especially for higher-paid positions.
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