MLA Moses Kirkconnell named new PAC man

Cayman Brac and Little Cayman MLA Moses Kirkconnell has been recommended by the opposition party to lead the Legislative Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee, but a committee chairman selection has yet to be confirmed by all LA members.  

Mr. Kirkconnell said last week he hoped the matter of selecting a new chairman would be dealt with during the current meeting of the LA.  

“I don’t think it can be put off for any longer,” Mr. Kirkconnell said Friday.  

Former Public Accounts Committee Chairman, North Side MLA Ezzard Miller, resigned from that position in March citing his concerns that other members of the committee weren’t showing up to meetings and that – without a quorum – work couldn’t get done.  

The Public Accounts Committee has a number of key responsibilities including providing oversight and approving invoices for the Cayman Islands Auditor General’s Office. The committee meets publicly to review various reports from the auditor general and compiles recommendations based on the findings of those reports.  

During Mr. Miller’s tenure, the committee managed to get through a backlog of about a dozen auditor general’s reports – some that contained findings of serious financial mismanagement – and some that dated back as far as five years.  

However, Mr. Kirkconnell said since Mr. Miller’s departure there has been no committee chairman, which prevented the group from the meeting and hearing further reports. Mr. Kirkconnell said the auditor’s office had kept busy and completed some reports since then, so there was more work for committee members to get through.  

Representatives of the auditor general’s office said it was also possible – if the committee stopped meeting long enough – that invoice approvals needed to pay staff members from the audit office wouldn’t be completed in time to pay those employees. 

Following a request from the Premier’s office, Opposition Leader Alden McLaughlin recommended the Cayman Brac-Little Cayman MLA as the Public Accounts Committee Chairman and recommended George Town MLA Kurt Tibbetts to replace Mr. Miller in the fifth spot on the committee.  

The other three Public Accounts Committee members; Cline Glidden Jr., Ellio Solomon and Dwayne Seymour are all backbench members of the ruling United Democratic Party.  

Typically, the PAC chairman is chosen from the ranks of the opposition party, although that was not the case during the previous People’s Progressive Movement government administration when one of its backbench elected members served as committee chairman. 

During the past several years, Cayman Islands government accounts have been a major source of concern in the public arena.  

Former Cayman Islands Auditor General Dan Duguay reported in 2008 that some $1.5 billion in government spending over several years had not been audited because appropriate records were not presented to his office. The auditor who succeeded him, Alastair Swarbrick, said late last year that there was no point in trying to update and audit accounts – particularly from government budget years between 2004 and 2008. 

The lack of audited accounts means that government cannot verify through any independent audit process precisely what it spent on items during a given budget year. Some agencies have turned in financial statements for various fiscal years between 2004 and the 2010/11 year, which will end on 30 June, but others have not and some of the data included in those accounts is so poor that it is essentially unverifiable, according to auditors.