Candice Caines, the SWMC’s new accountant has hit the ground running in her first month at work. Her first order of business was to begin the process of restructuring the corporation’s accounts department and from the looks of things, she seems ready for the task. “One of the responsibilities I was tasked with was restructuring the accounts department…for me what I needed to do as I got in was to assess each of their roles and see where they were underutilized or over-utilized and try to create a balance within the department,” she said.

Ms. Caines joined the staff in October 2016 and has become fully aware of the task at hand in helping to restructure the SWMC’s accounts department. “So far it has worked well. I had the opportunity to speak to each staff member, find out where they are, find out where they want to be and find out what they feel about what they’re doing and reorganize task and responsibility so no one person is overwhelmed and no one person is under-utilized,” she said. Most importantly though, the staff in her department seemed eager to accept the new challenge. “They seem eager in approaching the change,” she said.

In addition to restructuring the accounts department, Ms. Caines is also preparing the corporation for an audit. She was keen in her first month to try and figure out the state of the accounting of the corporation and how to put things in place for an audit. “I can’t enter into an audit with the frame of mind that I just got here and I don’t know what is going on. I have to use whatever time that I have so far and figure out what has been going on all year and try to remedy whatever issues that can be highlighted in an audit, she explained. “I have to prepare the team to have things well enough that when an audit comes it should be a simple process.”

Prior to the SWMC, Ms. Caines has had quite a diverse and productive career. She worked as a teacher when she left school in 1996, before moving into the accounting field in audit at the Royal Beach Casino. After leaving the casino, she worked for a destination management company for about two years before working in accounting at Ross University for nine and a half years. That was her last job before coming to the SWMC. Now that she is at the SWMC, Ms. Caines is hoping to help create a strong foundation at the Corporation and she believes the current staff complement offers the basis for that.