PPM denies responsibility for ReGen disaster: Cayman News Service

(CNS): The agreement signed by the PPM in 2021 with a Dart-led consortium to develop a waste-to-energy facility and waste management system was a bad deal, according to a recent report from the Office of the Auditor General, but the party, now in opposition, still seems unable to take responsibility for its failure. Instead, PPM deputy leader Joey Hew has pointed the finger at the decision of the Minister of Sustainable Development to “walk away” from the ReGen deal, accusing the current government of creating more uncertainty and risk.

The Attorney General’s Office report documents a series of mistakes made by Republicans that forced the current administration to Start exiting talks.

in a Video Information Hew appears to have recorded the video before reading the Attorney General’s Office directive and posted it on social media Condemnation Reporthe made false allegations to the Ministry of Sustainable Development, which took over project negotiations with Dart after the 2021 general election. Follow the catalogPreviously, the ministry had asked the Audit Office to review the transaction.

In social media posts, Hew suggested that the PACT government was responsible for the project’s cost ballooning from “$670 million to an unconfirmed $2 billion.” However, there is no evidence to support the claim that the cost had ballooned to $2 billion; the OAG report suggests that if the government had gone ahead with the project, the cost would have been around $1 billion.

But Hew blamed the soaring costs on “dithering and delays by the PACT and UPM governments over the past three years”, a position that is completely contrary to the audit report. Auditor General Sue Winspear and her team detailed the reasons for the cost increase and found that it was caused by numerous fundamental mistakes made by the PPM-led government at the beginning and early stages of the process.

The Auditor General’s Office report was leaked to the public after the Office sent the document to all 19 MPs, and the Progressives subsequently issued a press release downplaying the significant mistakes made during its tenure and even questioning the Auditor General’s evidence-based findings.

The party seemed to shrug off the basic errors, arguing that they needed to be left for future consideration, and they sought to downplay their significance and pin the blame on the PACT government’s failure to meet the deadlines set for them by the Progressives government.

The PPM said, “The procurement process provided regular updates and ministers decided to change approach as new information came to light. These changes included the capital injection already mentioned, acceptance of a revised size of the energy recovery plant and a reduction in the scope of the contract to cut costs. However, the extent to which detailed financial modelling assumptions were revisited needs to be clarified. The important issue of appropriate process will need to be explored in detail by the Public Accounts Committee when it meets to consider the report.”

However, the press release fails to address the fact that early mistakes led to problems, causing PACT to question the affordability and value for money of a deal that ultimately turned into a disaster that will do Dart much good and the people of the Cayman Islands nothing.

This has created a serious waste management problem for the islands at a time when the population is growing at an unprecedented rate. According to the latest statistics from the Economic and Statistics Office, the number of residents in the Cayman Islands was just under 85,000 at the end of October 2023. However, this is considered a conservative estimate given the increase in the number of work permits this year, which stood at well over 37,400 in May, an increase of about 1,000 since the time of the Labour Force Survey.

Ignoring his own role in the process that led to this outcome, Hew instead asked the current administration to answer a series of questions about the progress of negotiations since they took office – many of which were already answered in the report of the Attorney General’s Office.

Hew also asked how UPM plans to replace the 8% of energy expected to be generated by the Grand Cayman WTE plant, which is included in the National Energy Policy. However, for now, Sustainable Development Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks said government may re-tender the project and may award a conventional contract to the WTE specialists.

The deputy leader of the opposition demanded to know the location of the new landfill as the existing dump in Georgetown is likely to run out of space in the next few years. However, this was mainly because the PPM agreed and paid for Dart’s remediation work at the old garbage hill during negotiations and before any agreement was signed.

Critics point out that the agreement signed by the Popular Front on the eve of the election weakened the government’s power in negotiations because covering up the garbage dump next to Dart’s flagship town of Camana Bay was the main motivation for the Popular Front to enter the waste management business.

Watch Joey Hew’s video statement here.