Minutes just released by the Cabinet Office reveal that an extra $11.1 million in spending was approved by Cabinet in two separate meetings over the last few months before the general election.
At a special meeting of the Cabinet on Friday, 28 Feb., extra payments totalling $4,719,397.18 were approved in government spending across several departments including sports, communications and education, while a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, 8 April approved an extra $6.4 million for education and Home Affairs.
This is in addition to the extra $7.7 million in government spending approved by Cabinet in its 20 March meeting, the minutes of which were released several weeks before the minutes of the 28 Feb. meeting.
Extra spending
The notes show that in the special meeting of 28 Feb., Cabinet approved an additional $1,339,397.18 for government communication services. The amount originally allocated to this department in the Cayman Islands budget was $3,920,500.
Amounts to the University College of the Cayman Islands were also adjusted. There was a decrease in equity investments by $749,000 from the budgeted amount of $1.12 million, but there were three separate increases in the money allocated to the teaching of tertiary level, professional and vocational programmes of $749,000, $750,000 and $1.28 million. This resulted in an extra $2,779,000 for UCCI teaching on top of the budgeted $8,960,255.
Extra funding was also given to the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Heritage of an extra $850,000 in equity investment over the planned $2,835,000 and an extra $500,000 in transfer payments to the ministry to add to the $1,653,459 in the budget.
In the minutes to the Cabinet meeting on 8 April, which were released on Tuesday, several more payments were revealed. The money allocated for secondary education services was increased by $5 million for the 2024 fiscal year, and the budget for Output Group EI 85 was increased by $1.4 million.
Government finances under strain
The Ministry of Finance issued its Pre-Election Economic and Financial Update earlier this month, in which is was revealed that the government was running an operating deficit, meaning it was spending more than it was receiving in revenue. It had expected to return a surplus of $54.7 million at the end of 2025, but it will instead be in the red by $26.2 million, a difference of nearly $81 million.
Several administrative tasks were also noted in the minutes to the Cabinet meetings, including on 28 Feb., issuing the official notice of the referendum, reappointing people to the Air Transport Licensing Authority and the approval of various land purchases, including Long Beach in Cayman Brac.
Coastal Works Permits were approved for a new dock at Morgan’s Harbour in West Bay, new groynes, a new dock and a new launching ramp in Kaibo, North Side and the creation of swim holes for public use at East End Public Beach. East End MP Isaac Rankine, who serves as minister of youth, sports and heritage, requested at the end of last year that turtle grass be removed and a 12,000-square-foot swim hole dug out in the waters off Colliers Beach in East End.
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