Mac accused of ‘disrespect’

| 10/07/2009

(CNS): The outgoing chair of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority has hit out over his impending removal by the new government and described its failure to tell him he is going as “blatant disrespect”. He accused the administration of politicizing CIMA by undermining its expected independence from government. In a long statement Carlyle McLaughlin said he first heard of his removal from a reporter and has still not been told officially.

“I have still had no discussion or communication with anyone in an official capacity about my ‘removal’ as chairman of CIMA,” he stated. “I can only say that my disappointment with such blatant disrespect is appalling after the many years of service I have provided to my country. It should now be clear that the LOGB considers this position as a political appointment even though my fellow directors and I have been elected for 3 year terms, something that has been in place for several years now.”

McLaughlin stated that there could no longer be an expectation that CIMA should act as an independent body from central government and that its appointments should not be seen as political. “It has been shown from the last time the Financial Secretary held the Chairmanship of CIMA…. and especially after First Cayman Bank, that it was deemed more appropriate to avoid bringing into question the independence of CIMA by having a civil servant as Chairman,” he wrote, adding that since then Chairmen have been private individuals to avoid controversy by ensuring that CIMA would appear to act in an objective manner without undue political influence when regulating any of its licensees.

McLaughlin said he has tried to execute his appointments without political favour but his lack of self-promotion was probably the reason behind what he called his “failures”. Explaining his silence since becoming chair of CIMA, he said he did not think it appropriate that CIMA should be seen as pushing the issues but should instead follow its mandate under the law to be a liaison between government and the financial industry.

“This is the part the ‘Carlyle who?’ blogger and others could never understand why I did not make more public statements. I felt I couldn’t do that and still maintain the level of impartiality and objectivity which came with the Chairmanship of CIMA,” McLaughlin stated.

He said Tim Ridley, the former CIMA chair, and more recently Anthony Travers, the new chair of CIFSA, were doing that already. McLaughlin said that as chair he was focusing on the regulatory work that needed to be done and that CIMA was a different organisation since his appointment as director four years ago.

McLaughlin denied that his appointment as chair was political and said that at least Ridley had been told he was going at the end of his three year term. McLaughlin noted that he was less than a year into the three year service to which he had committed.

“I did not consider myself a political appointee because I felt I was nominated as Chairman because of the skill set I brought to the equation,” McLaughlin wrote, adding that he was not close to Alden McLaughlin.

He said he was sad that it was evident his service was no longer required by his country and that he would be retiring from any further positions nominated by government. “It is perceived that I have become a political follower of one party or the other and this is against the principles I have maintained of impartiality and fairness in my various appointments though the years,” he added.

McLaughlin listed some eight board and committee memberships he would be relinquishing including the Immigration Board, Chair of the Silver Thatch Pension Plan and the Turtle Farm.

He said he would now spend more time with his church and my family and recommence some of the things he hoped to accomplish when he retired from the auditing profession some 6 years ago. 

See full statement here.

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  1. Anonymous says:

     

    CIMA should not be negotiating TIEAS for Cayman.  CIMA is supposed to be an independent autonomous body and as such it should not be represent the Cayman Government.  Its a bit like the tail wagging the dog to have the regulator negoting international agreement that are binding on our Country.  Come on Cayman, wake up!  These are fundamental constructs of any respectable democracy.  Many of our forefathers have given their lives to ensure that  there is clear separation and balance of powers between the judiciary, the legislative and the executive.  Don’t let MAC trample over your hard earned democratic rights!!

     

     

     
  2. Anonymous says:

    Mr. Carlyleis a man of substance and probably he should have avoided exposing another of McKeeva’s vindictive acts but if all persons of this type of upbringing ignore people like Mckeeva then what a sad place Cayman will become.  Thanks Mr. McLaughlin for your 20+ years of upstanding public service as this is more than we can say about known politically-aligned public employees of the likes of McCarthy.

  3. Just because.... says:

    KNIGHTHOOD….hahahaha….hoody by knight more like…hahaha KNIGHTHOOD….hahahah

  4. Anonymous says:

    How much back-tracking is Dep. Leader Rolston going to have to do to make for LOGB Mac’s off-the-cuff decisions: 

    1) Mac: "No more Pirate’s Week!!", Rolston: "Well, we didn’t really mean there will be no more Pirate’s Week there will just be a change to the name and some of the activities, some day, but probably not this year but soon.  We will be discussing this further…"

    2) Mac: "No more pensions!", Rolston, "Well, we didn’t really mean there will be no more pension contributions, this is just a holiday, a targeted exercise for certain small business that have been complaining.  No, we don’t know how long it will last. We will be discussing this further…" 

    Makes you wonder what sort of off-the-cuff promises the LOGB is making overseas to play to the crowds while he’s signing all of these tax agreements.  Unlike the others that have stated Mac talks first and thinks later, I actually don’t believe he thinks much at all! 

    Mr. McLaughlin, thank you for your services to this country but it seems that your deliberate, professional style would never agree with the Mac administration.

  5. Afraid to Strap on a Pair Also says:

    Caymans Islands in the Foreign Press

    Excuse me- wasn’t Alden being described as "impotent" recently and  didn’t he deserve to get fired for being missing in action at the time he was most needed and hasn’t his nepotism been a running joke?  I don’t particularly care for the way Carlyle’s firing was handled but the writers here are running jokes.

    • Olivaire Watler says:

      Afraid I think you are confusing Alden with the OECD who was described by Tony Travers as ‘impotent". Applying that to Alden clearly has other implications.

      I don’t think anyone seriously believes Carlyle’s appointment was due to nepotism in view of the fact that Carlyle was already a member of the Board and has been member of govt. Boards for decades. But it is an effective political slur.

  6. Richard Wadd says:

    Here’s another ‘Idea’, why not have a ‘No Confidence Vote’ and ‘Overthrow’ the not-so-big Mac as LGB? We could replace him with Mike or Ralston. 

    We need Educated, successful Leaders to run our Govt. 

    After all, Govt IS a business (wheather we see it as such or not). They MUST earn more than (or at least as much as) they spend, or they will go bankrupt, and THAT will ruin our economy.

    We are already in a hole, let us not make it any deeper, or we won’t be able to get back out.

  7. The Observer says:

    As someone said in another post.

    Mac’s admininstative style is:

    Fire!

    Move

    Move

    Ready

    Steady
    aim
  8. Anonymous says:

    Run with PPM MR. Mclaughlin I would vote for u too:)

  9. Anonymous says:

    That is not true…the PPM left UDP supporters on the boards.

    • Anonymous says:

      Oh, yeah. Tell me who they left that they knew for sure was a UDP supporter? Noone, and I’m not asking you I am telling you!!   But for sure, the UDP will be all inclusive and will use people who have much to offer, no matter the party affiliation.   Of course, there will be instances when the UDP will have a preference over some  one else and that’s to be expected.  Already, unkown to some, we have named PPM supporters to some of the boards.  That’s the nature of the Mac. 

      • Anonymous says:

        "Oh, yeah. Tell me who they left that they knew for sure was a UDP supporter?…But for sure, the UDP will be all inclusive and will use people who have much to offer, no matter the party affiliation"

        Obviously that flies in the face of the facts. The UDP has appointed people to positions based purely upon UDP party affiliation and not what they bring to the table. Last time if they even suspected you did not support them you were alienated. The ‘nature of the Mac’ does not change any more than a leopard changes its spots.    

  10. A Concerned Caymanian says:

    It is really a shame the way this government is handling its people… Not all the UDP team is corrupt and I hope those with ethics and morals left will stand up against this behavior!

  11. Anonymous says:

    UDP – Please Remove McKeeva from LOGB

    Please recognize the weak leadership and judgement of this man. McKeeva is only one person – he is not the UDP. I know there are many other excellent people within the UDP.  I’m sure most would agree, Mike Adams for example would make a far superior LOGB/Premier. If you do not remove McKeeva from his position of LOGB – the country will loose total faith in its leadership and the UPD. Not to mention the tremendous costs, losses, humiliation –  that the country will incurr.

    We are loosing faith already – and you’ve only been in office less than 2 months.

    – A UDP supporter.

  12. Wes' Bay-a says:

    Caymanians, you need to know……….if we feel that the governance of these islands under the UDP government is incompetent or other of serious concern, when the new Constitution has been put in effect by the Governor, we the Electorate have the power to remove them.  Under the new Constitution, the Electorate have the power to move a Referendum. We need only 25% of the Electorate’s signatures to make it effective.  I encourage each and every Caymanian to read, read, and re-read our Constitution, its the law that will protect us from such a goverment.

  13. Anonymous says:

    All this heavy handed knee jerk reaction that smacks of Dictatorship and this was after a  democratic election.

    People in Honduras claim the coup has set their country back 30 years. Well the UDP has already set Cayman back 33 years and we have not had a coup! 

  14. Anonymous says:

    It is not right for the government to terminate Mr. McLaughlin just because they want to put in Mr. McCarthy. They are both well respected and knowledgable men that would lead the authority in the right direction. Why has the current government decided to do this in this manner. This is yet another example of how respected the Caymanian people are here in our own country. I am disgusted at the behaviour of the government system past and present. Are we the Caymanian people waiting to be run out of our country or are we going to get a backbone and stand up for ourselves and our people? Even if we have to resort to a riot or a strike, we have to stand up and do something.Look at how the Filipinos united and went after Immigration Dept. We are Caymanians let us unite and boycott the system then they will now that we mean business.

  15. Shamrock says:

    The difference between the approaches in which Mr. McLaughlin and Mr. Ridley were removed is that Mr. Ridley’s contract had expired and it was not renewed. In Mr. McLaughlin’s case, he is still under contract to serve as a CIMA director. So the fact that he was not formally notified that he was being replaced as Chairman is, indeed, disrespectful. But with Mac at the helm, I am not at all surprised by the way it was handled. Fair enough that each party wants their own cronies chairing respective boards, etc., but there is a dignified and decent way to make such changes. Unfortunately, in this instance, this was not the case.

  16. Michael Weston... says:

    Welcome to my world Mr McLaughlin…. see? Even Caymanians aren’t safe anymore from Fidel Bush….

    • Anonymous says:

      You know what, the UDP is not treating this gentlemen any differently than the PPM  did during thier four years in office.  I was a director of one of the boards as well, and when the PPM  won the election  I was not advised that my services would no longer be needed. No consideration was given to the fact that I had some thirty years experience in the related field to guide me on the  respective board.  A new board was simply appointed by the PPM and I found out about that by reading it in the newspapers,  and that’s the way it is.  I did not complain or be a cry -baby. I just went on with my life as usual, knowing that I had served mycourntry to the best of my abiltiy.   My advice to Mr. Mclaughlin would be the same, find somthing constructive to do to fill the void  of longer being chairperson.  And so it is.

      • Anonymous says:

        "The UDP is not treating this gentlemen any differently than the PPM  did during thier four years in office".

        There is a great deal of evidence to refute that. You do understand, don’t you, that there is a difference between Boards (e.g. the Immigration Board) where a person is appointed at the pleasure of the Governor in Cabinet and the Board of a statutory authority the Directors of which  are appointed for a specific term in order to secure the operational independence of those authorities. 

        Directly in point is the case of Mr. Ridley as the immediate predecessor of Mr. McLaughlin where the PPM definitely did not do what you suggest. I need not repeat the facts since that has already been adequately addressed here. 

        It is not simply the fact that Mr. McLaughlin is being replaced but the unseemly fashion in which it has been done – by making a public announcement of the appointment of his successor without having first communicated anything to Mr. McLaughlin. 

        This UDP v. PPM thing has reached the point where party supporters are forgetting that we are all Caymanians, and Caymanians of dignity with skills and talents and a willingness to serve their country ought not to be treated in that way. The country has been deprived of a valuable resource. What compounds the issue is the fact there appears to be no evidence that Mr. McLaughlin was himself political. Shame on Mr. Bush.          

  17. Anonymous says:

    Respect for Law and Procedure

    While I appreciate the Hon McKeeva Bush’s immediate attention to needed international tax treaties – I find every other aspect of his first 6 weeks in office to be highly distrubing. His approach to CIMA, Pirates Week and UCCI smacks of authoritarianism (like we’ve never seen before) and complete disregard for law, checks, balances and good governance:

    1) By passing the board of the CIMA, all established CIMA law and policy and pushing its Director out – politicizing an integral body to our economy that should appear and be independant from the political arena.

    2) His decision to end Pirates Week and create his own new Cultural Heritage Week. Whether or not Mr Bush likes it, this now IS apart of Caymanian culture. This may win favor with the extreme religous elements of Cayman, but I believe this will find favor with few others. There are already almost 1,000 members of a facebook group ‘Save Pirates Week’.  The LOGB is not elected to forcefully change our culture.

    3) His appointment of Roy Bodden as President of UCCI.  I believe the established procedure is that a selection committee should be formed – by the UCCI Board and the Ministry of Education, the position advertised, applicants short listed, interviewed, and then the selection committee appoints the most qualified candidate.

    It seems that we do indeed have a return to UDP politics as usual. Is this not all of the same nature as the mass status grant situation?

    Not only this. With the passing of massively flawed constitution, lacking in adequate checks and balances, particularly for the new Premier post, Cayman, you have now given McKeeva Bush and others like him, free reign (or much more so than now) to run the country at his will. Good luck.

    UDP – please put Mr Bush in his place. I know many of you know better than this.

  18. Anonymous says:

    McKeeva once again you has shamed us in your vindictive actions.  Your position should not allow you to be involve in anyway with CIMA.  Cima is a indipendent regulatory body, therefore you should not be involve in the hiring and firing of anyone in that unit nor should you be involve with the civil servants body.  You are out of order!!!  How can an employee of the Civil Service be faithful to their job if this continues to happen?  Where the job security is no longer promising, as every four years they are fired by the likes of you.  Who does you..McKeeva thinks you are??? Donald Trump??? Once again there goes another very talented, qualified, respectful and educated Caymanian, that did not interferred in any politics, never heard of being scandalous, has remained independent of siding with any party, was impartial and just wanted to get on with doing the job of the regulatory business, that is so vital to today’s economy.  McKeeva…first Angela Martins, because you did not like her, now Carlyle…. because he is the cousin to Alden…Why did you not talk to him? Why McKeeva????  Who is next???  Why are you acting this way? Have you forgotten your ‘new’ christian values, already? Why are you always scheming and dealing under the tables? Why can’t you do a straight deal and act like a true leader? Why so negative when some asks you a question on your actions? Why are you losing your soul to gain the world McKeeva?  Have you not learnt anything yet after all this time as a member of the Assembly? How can you fool so many people most of the time? McKeeva please I beg you…do something right for your people and country, not just for the money…ok?

  19. Richard Wadd says:

     To: Anon – 07/10/2009 – 08:34

    Ahhh, but the ‘Observance of Law’ is NOT a directive of THIS (UDP) Govt., as was proven by the Election Fiasco with the Constitutional Law (supposedly the Highest Law of the Land).

    To make matters worse, those who are charged with the Job of Protecting and Upholding our Laws seem to have no interest in doing so. 

     

     

  20. Anonymous says:

    Now Carlyle McLaughlin speaks.  Never heard a peep out of him since he was appointed by his cousin Alden.  All remnants of the failed PPM should go the way of the ostrich in shame.  Resign Mr. McLaughlin (the two of you!).  Besides, didn’t the PPM get rid of Mr. Ridley who seems to actually know what he’s doing?  That was ok I guess.  It’s like when Chuckie called the Rooster Talk Show complaining about how the new government was getting rid of people in various departments.  He didn’t force outgood people like Kennedy Panton, Mike Adam, Tim Hubble?  Oh, it was ok then right? It must sicken him that the people fully supported Mike Adam (Honourable Minister to you Chuckie!).  That must hurt.  I can’t believe I even voted for some PPM in 2005.  You proved me wrong but I didn’t make the same mistake twice.  I just feel bad for the sorry people who follow PPM blindly and refuse to see what they did to our country.  Instead of "Don’t Stop the Progress" the PPM slogan should be the "Misled, Misinformed, Unaware, Bamboozled" bunch.  YOU SCREWED UP THE COUNTRY!  No please go away already and let the current government try to bring us back up instead of making them waste time with you clowns!  I must say that I have my doubts considering how bad things were left, but if McKeeva actually gets us out of this mess, he will deserve a KNIGHTHOOD and the PPM will go the way of the befitting Dodo Bird.

  21. Richard Wadd says:

     There is a difference between an Educated Professional with a moral background, and a ‘Glorified Gardner’ aspiring to be a Dictator.

    But as the former, we are too busy making money to take an active role in the Governance and Politics of our Country, and so it is left up to the latter to fill the positions of greatest importance in our country.

    We can only blame ourselves!

    …. so Mr. McLaughlin, why not (along with so many others of us) GIVE back to our islands by running for Political Office.

    I would Vote for you.

     

  22. ME says:

    Like I said when this was first announced, this move by Mac is designed to ensure that he has political control of CIMA again. It will only serve to undermine the credibility of CIMA as an autonomous body and of this jurisdiction as a credible leading financial center.

    You haven’t seen the OECD goal post shifted much yet…..watch now !!!

    Mr. McLaughlin you have served our country well and we thank you for that. Unfortunately Mac is determined to turn our country into a banana republic……we had better stop him now once and for all.

    By the way, the manner in which the Cabinet appointed Mr. McCarthy as Chairman of CIMA was illegal under the CIMA Law but then again this current government has no regard for the rule of law.

    Just look at the constitutional issue they have created in Bodden Town.

    Is it any wonder that our youth have taken "things into their own hands"  and have no regard for our laws ?

  23. Anonymous says:

    Here’s to the gentleman of Mr. McLaughlin, a man of respect and honor, not many can stand in his shoes and definately not the LOGB, who still lacks home training.

     

     

     

    • Everybody knows that Mac is a man who opens his mouth before engaging his brain. Look at the embarassment with the so called re-naming of Pirates Week which was a spur of the moment ‘inside the church service’ decision. He still hasn’t quite figured that one out yet. Then there’s the penisions contributions ‘holiday’ – never even discussed that with the regulatory authorities to see how and if that could work.

      Rushed into signing more agreements without giving full thought process to same. It is so sad that this country has to keep playing see-saw with Kurt and Mckeeva – neither are qualified to lead these Islands.

  24. Anonymous says:

    Ridley removed by Kurt Mclaughlin remove Mckeeva so what is the problem stop complaining.

    • Anonymous says:

      "Ridley removed by Kurt Mclaughlin remove Mckeeva so what is the problem stop complaining’".

      Not the same thing at all. Ridley was not "removed" by Kurt. Ridley had been appointed by the UDP Govt. for a three-year term which was not interfered with by the PPM when it came into power. He left office when his term expired last year and it was therefore lawful. He has advised prior to its expiry that it would not be removed and therefore it was courteous.   

    • Anonymous says:

      The problem is the way it has been done – Anyone with any sense of decency or MANNERS would have discussed this matter with Mr. McLaughlin and/or at the very least given him a letter to advising that his services would no longer be needed and thank him for services rendered – wrong is wrong and MAC just has to accept that some times he is bullheaded and wrong and then he needs to just APOLOGISE – it would kill him to admit to being wrong sometimes and apologising. You cant just go around hurting decent people.

  25. Anonymous says:

    Mr. McLaughlin is right, of course. While it is understandable that the new govt. would wish to nominate its own chairman it was important that this be done in accordance with the Monetary Authority Law. Even as a matter of decency Mr. McLaughlin was owed, at the minimum, a one-on-one discussion prior to this announcent. It may well have been that his skill-set could usefully have been deployed elsewhere. Instead, the LOGB has chosen to publicly embarrass Mr. McLaughlin into resigning (and there is no other lawful basis for his removal). At a time when the govt. is calling for ‘all hands on deck’ that is unnecessarily divisive.