Opposition MPs highlighted the importance of carefully allocating government surpluses and raised concerns about a banking motion, during a recent radio interview.
Speaking on Radio Cayman on 10 September, opposition leader Joey Hew and MP Roy McTaggart said surplus management should focus on long-term planning not short-term political gains.
Hew said the previous People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) administration’s cash reserves enabled decisive COVID-19 border closures, while supporting vulnerable populations through increased pensioner stipends from CI$350 to $950 monthly.
“When COVID hit, the importance of having that cash reserve, the ability to make that decision to close our borders before anyone else in the world really, to protect our people, that was because we had that cash position,” he said.
The opposition leader said the government had nearly paid off all its debt in 2019, but former premier Alden McLaughlin had advised waiting to ensure financial stability.
“Premier at the time said, ‘Listen, I don’t like that, let’s wait until after the new year and see how the financial services fees coming.
“’I’m not comfortable emptying the bank accounts just to put up that banner and beat our chest leading up to an election’,” Hew said.
McTaggart then confirmed plans to query the government during the next parliamentary session about a previously accepted motion regarding banks.
The motion, brought by the former PPM member in July 2024, called for two key legislative changes.
The first would require local retail banks to follow consumer protection standards similar to the UK’s banking consumer duty rules.
The second features amendments to the Registered Land Act to reform mortgage and foreclosure frameworks.
“Government agreed to take it on and accept it. I even asked a question towards the end of that last term with regard to what progress had they made, and to be honest with you, it’s been crickets ever since,” McTaggart said.
The MP said he would raise the banking matter during question time, describing the government response as “eerie silence”.
