The often unspoken assumption in the Cayman Islands is that British civil servants who come here to work are looking for a nice, easy gig to round out their careers just prior to retirement.

The stereotype is so ingrained that government workers will sometimes joke that being age 57 is actually a prerequisite for new Cayman Islands governors. In other words, the suggestion is that they are three years from the mandatory retirement age of 60.

However, newly appointed Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick does not seem to fit that mould.

Swarbrick is 42 - fairly young for his profession - and he has never run an operation the size of the Cayman Islands Auditor General’s office before.

The Scottish native believes the three-island chain, which is now home to something less than 60,000 people, offers a lot of opportunity.

“I want a challenge is the main reason,” Swarbrick says. “Opportunities are limited at the moment, certainly at home in terms of progression and change. I was looking for the next step.

“I’ve always wanted to work in another culture, and I also think I can bring my experience, what I’ve done in 20 years of public audit, to do some good.”

Swarbrick, during his first public interview since taking over the office, says he has spent his first month in the Islands trying to assess the country’s financial status and speaking with government representatives about their concerns.

He is well aware of the ongoing problem of unaudited government accounts. It was first revealed in 2008 that some $1.5 billion in Cayman Islands government spending had gone unaudited over a period of several years. Swarbrick says he’s making clearing up the backlog from those unfinished audits a major office priority.

“I think I’d be disingenuous if I didn’t say there was an area of concern around it,” Swarbrick says. “It’s something that we’re actively working with the government on.”

A conclusion to the ongoing saga, for better or worse, will come before the end of this year. That’s when the auditor general’s office intends to complete its work on six years of backlogged audits and deliver those to government’s Public Accounts Committee. 

The new auditor says he fully intends to comply with statutory deadlines that require a report on government accounts to be filed by 15 December and he indicated that report will be filed “at whatever stage we’ve got to” on that date.

The report will be completed whether or not government entities have actually completed their financial statements for the year, Swarbrick says. 

Clearing up the backlog of public accounts and annual reports from government entities, as well as statutory authorities and government-owned companies, is important for another reason - what Swarbrick calls “the wider scope” of audit work.

“It’s not just looking at the financial statements,” he says. “You have to look at whether the transactions are being incurred in line with legislation and also looking at whether there’s been value for money achieved in terms of the expenditure.” 

“I think that’s a fundamental key component of being a public auditor. Even though there’s no direct taxation on this island, it’s still public money. As you have no choice in that, it’s important that your government is getting value for money.”

Value-for-money is one of the three important elements of being a public auditor, Swarbrick says.

The first, and most important, is independence from government; and the other is the auditor’s ability to publicly report his or her findings. 

On that last point, Mr. Swarbrick isn’t having much to say at the moment. He said talks are continuing with government officials about precisely how and when auditor general’s reports can be released.

One area that his office will not get into is attempting to influence government policy, Swarbrick says.

“Our role is to look at the implementation and how that’s been done efficiently and effectively,” he says. “The policy is for government. It’s not our role to say whether it’s good or bad.”

For now, Swarbrick is working on a three-year audit plan with members of his office, and he said he still needs to meet with many government chief officers to determine what areas will be checked into first, second and third, so to speak.