(CNS): Financial Secretary Ken Jefferson admitted to parliament on Tuesday that the government might be sailing very close to the wind with the revised expectations on this year’s budget. Spending by the end of this year is expected to reach over CI$1.03 billion, an unprecedented amount, leaving the government with a surplus of just $3.3 million and a very narrow window to stay in the black.

As Premier Wayne Panton, as finance minister, opened a Finance Committee meeting Tuesday morning, he said the government was making a request of CI$68.8 million in supplementary appropriations for the rest of this year. Last month, he asked the civil service to cut spending during the remainder of this year by 8.5%, but despite concerns about runaway expenditure, the government still needed to appropriate more money.

This is to cover, among other things, around CI$19 million more for the education budget and more than CI$31 million for the ever-growing local and overseas healthcare bills for the under- and uninsured.

MPs met yesterday for the first time since the parliament was abruptly adjourned on Friday afternoon after Dwayne Seymour announced his departure from the PACT Government, but during the meeting, there was no mention of his resignation or who would be taking up the vacant Ministry of Border Control and Labour.

Sitting on the opposition benches for the first vote of CI$2.2 million, Seymour, along with all of the other opposition members, abstained. However, he was not seen in the chamber of the House again during the Finance Committee meeting.

Before the members began questioning the government about each of the requested appropriations, the premier revealed that instead of the original core government surplus of over $27 million, they were now expecting just CI$3.3 million.

The budget has been revised several times over the course of this year, as both revenue and spending have increased. Explaining the financial implications of the latest revision, Panton said the projections called for core government revenue to be CI$1.033 billion and for the operating expenditure with the additional appropriations to be $1.03 billion.

Opposition members pressed the premier on details about the current state of public finances, especially the many changes and additional appropriations that have been signed off so far this year. Chris Saunders MP (BTW) noted that expenditure was not expected to exceed a billion dollars until 2026 and asked exactly how much was approved to be spent in 2023, as he warned that public spending was “getting really scary”.

This started a long exchange between opposition members and the financial secretary, who detailed the movement of money over the last two years, including $76 million carried over from 2022. He pointed out that an additional $104 million had been appropriated for this year.

Jefferson said it was very rare for all of the money that is requested to actually be spent, which means it is likely that the surplus will be considerably more by the end of the year, but it was still possible that it all could be spent.

Sir Alden McLaughlin MP (RED) asked Jefferson if, as a veteran of public finances, he was “comfortable sailing so close to the wind” and about the risk of the government ending up with a deficit.

“Of course it’s not comfortable sailing that close to the wind, as three million is neither here nor there in terms of a surplus, as it could easily turn into a break-even position. But… the $3.3 million surplus is based on every single dollar being requested actually being spent, but our experience is that is not going to occur,” Jefferson said.

He noted that in 2022, just over half of the money in supplementary requests was spent. Panton added that the government was making an effort to make appropriate spending cuts and helping civil servants to reduce expenditure and that he was expecting an under-spend.

During the course of the committee hearing, the opposition abstained from every vote for supplementary funds, including the money for scholarships, the Cayman Islands Fire Service and hospital bills.

See the full proceedings on CIGTV below: