Government has awarded a $1.28 million contract to EY Cayman for consultancy services to implement Cayman’s new outcomes-based budgeting framework.
The contract marks the beginning of the exercise to overhaul government’s national budget process.
The contract award, which was posted to government’s public procurement portal Bonfire, follows the issuing of a tender back in January for government to move towards a more transparent and efficient outcomes-based framework.
Accountant General Matthew Tibbetts, in a previous comment to the Cayman Compass on the planned budget framework changes, said the aim was to have the new process in place for the third quarter of 2025 for the 2026-2027 budget.
No changes will be made to the current 2024-2025 budget, he has said.
Need for change
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has been looking to modernise its budgeting and reporting framework and move to a strategic results-based approach, following several reports from the auditor general calling for a better budget process.
In 2013, the Office of the Auditor General first recommended that government simplify the budgeting framework and move to an outcomes-based approach.
Though this recommendation has been repeated, most recently in 2020, no changes have yet been made.
Government first said it would implement an outcomes-based framework by March 2023, but that deadline was later postponed to December 2025.
Auditor General Sue Winspear, in previous comments on the delay in starting the process, said it was disappointing how long it took to move forward, “especially given the resource hungry and inefficient budget process we currently have”.
Pointing to the length of time needed to get the 2024-25 budget cycle completed, which ran from February to December 2023, Winspear stressed the need for a change.
“Outcomes-based budgeting focuses on results, providing greater transparency between government policies, spending, and the outcomes achieved for society. It shifts the focus to the quality or effectiveness of services provided, and what difference is being made, rather than mere outputs,” she had explained.
Outcome-based budgeting is a leading approach to budgeting, Tibbetts noted in his previous comments, saying it aligns resources with results and is organised by the services government provides to support the broad strategic outcomes.
“It is a forward-looking and outcome-focused approach to budgeting, which starts by looking forward at what results matter, rather than looking back at last year’s budget allocations. For example, is our population healthier, more educated, safer, etc.,” he said.
The new process will focus on the actual outcomes or results that have been achieved through government expenditure.
The process is expected to reduce the likelihood of repeating last year’s lengthy budget formulation during with approval of the budget went almost down to the wire with legislators approving the fiscal package in mid-December, mere weeks before the 31 Dec. deadline.
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It is hard to believe that the government is going to spend over a million dollars That’s a million dollars to do a budget that they should have people on staff to do it. I am just a lowly retired dentist but have done budgets for numerous organizations over the years. It’s just NOT that hard. A million dollars. Give me a break
Might I suggest that before these new processes are adopted that the Civil Service employ more fully qualified accountants who can understand the requirements of this system.