Auditor General Report: Civil service accountability suffers “significant breakdown”

Despite assurances by the Deputy Governor Franz Manderson that the civil service had established strategies to deal with issues surrounding accountability, the Auditor General Patrick Smith said the process had broken down significantly.

Mr Smith’s comments come following the Office of the AG’s recent report, which provides a position statement on the status of government minutes responding to Public Accounts Committee reports as at 15 March 2026. It also summarises all outstanding recommendations made by the PAC and the OAG across 27 reports published between July 2015 and February 2025.

The Parliament Standing Orders, 2025, require the government to formally respond to PAC reports within three months of the reports being laid in Parliament. These formal responses (government minutes) are supposed to address each recommendation made by the OAG and the PAC, explaining what actions the government has taken or plans to take.

The report highlighted that the government last tabled government minutes in July 2024, and that eight were late as at March 2026. It also stated that most government minutes tabled were late. The AG explained that 90 per cent of government minutes responding to PAC reports were yet to be tabled or were tabled late.

“On average, these government minutes were 18 months late. No government minutes have been tabled since July 2024, almost two years ago. This is a significant breakdown in the accountability process,” he stated.

The report stated that there were 249 outstanding OAG and PAC recommendations as at 15 March 2026. The OAG categorised the recommendations into 26 themes, with eight themes accounting for almost two-thirds.

Many of the outstanding recommendations identified significant improvements were needed to support information for decision making, improve transparency and demonstrate value for money, the AG stated.

“For example, major improvements are needed in the government’s budgeting framework, use of resources and how it measures and reports performance,” Mr Smith said. “Addressing the outstanding recommendations will lead to more efficient and effective public services, resulting in improved outcomes for Caymanians, residents and visitors.”

The report stated that 141 recommendations had been outstanding for more than five years and that five public bodies were responsible for 57 per cent of the outstanding recommendations, with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development responsible for almost a quarter of all recommendations.

“When public bodies ignore or delay acting on recommendations from the PAC and my Office, it becomes harder to hold public servants accountable for how they spend public money,” Mr Smith said. “This increases the risk of fraud, waste, and misappropriation of public resources.”

In response, the Office of the Deputy Governor said the Civil Service had developed a comprehensive and forward-looking strategy to address outstanding government minutes, as well as the OAG and PAC recommendations.

Mr Manderson said the strategy aimed to resolve existing backlogs and establish a more efficient, transparent and sustainable system for managing recommendations in the future. He said that the strategy had been shared with both the OAG and the Chair of PAC and their feedback and further discussions had been invited. In addition, an action plan had been submitted to the OAGO addressing the outstanding government minutes.

“As a Civil Service with a proven track record of transparency, accountability and continuous improvement, we welcome the Auditor General’s and PAC’s recommendations as valuable insights to strengthen governance, enhance performance and better serve the public. We believe this strategy will be a game changer in improving how the Civil Service responds to, implements and reports on OAG and PAC recommendations. It also provides an excellent opportunity for increased collaboration between the Civil Service, the OAG and the PAC,” Mr Mandleson said.

Mr Smith was pleased that the Deputy Governor’s Office had very recently developed a strategy to address outstanding recommendations and clear the backlog of government minutes and said he looked forward to having a discussion with them about implementing this as soon as reasonably possible.