Archive for October 18th, 2010

Immigration plans public meeting campaign

Immigration plans public meeting campaign

| 18/10/2010 | 7 Comments

(CNS): The immigration department has said it intends to meet with the Cayman public at a series of open meetings over the next few weeks. Business owners, permit applicants, frequent travellers, and anyone else impacted by the immigration system will have the opportunity to ask questions face to face and hear presentations on the numerous issues relating to one of Cayman’s most important government departments. The meetings come at an appropriate time with numerous changes planned to the system, many of which have already been implemented. The meetings begin on Tuesday, 26 October, and officials hope the meetings will be informative and, given the current and future immigration developments, that they will receive constructive community feedback.

 “A one-on-one option will allow personal issues and questions to be posed and answered by appropriate staff members,” said Chief Immigration Officer Linda Evans. The meetings will allow people to make private enquiries as officials will be holding individual desks meetings before offering a one-hour general and public presentation followed by more general interaction.
 
Evans explained that line officers will take the lead at the booths, representing areas ranging from front-counter and visa sections, to business staffing plans and the status/permanent residence boards. However, Evans said she will also be present, as will the three Deputy CIOs – Bruce Smith (Border Control); Samantha Bennett (Administration), and Gary Wong (Enforcement).
 
All meetings start at 5:30pm until 9pm and the schedule is as follows:
 
West Bay: Tuesday, 26 October Sir John A Cumber Shirley Kidd Memorial Hall
East End: Wednesday, 27 October at the William Allen McLaughlin Civic Centre
Savannah: Thursday, 28 October at Savannah Primary School
Bodden Town: Monday, 1 November at the Bodden Town Civic Centre
North Side: Tuesday, 2 November at the Craddock Ebanks Civic Centre
George Town: Wednesday, 3 November at the John Gray High School Hall
Cayman Brac: Thursday, 4 November at the Aston Rutty Centre.
 
Officials pointed out that answers to many immigration queries may already be available and the public is encouraged to prepare ahead by first checking data on basic enquiries on the department’s website: www.immigration.gov.ky
 
The new immigration enforcement hotline (1-800-534 2546) and email address (legalim@gov.ky) may also be used by members of the public wishing to provideconfidential anonymous information to the enforcement unit.
 
Meanwhile, seven new recruits joined the department and by February will help to ease some of the department’s serious staff shortages. Required to have a command of local laws as well as an understanding of human behaviour, the officers must be versed in geography, psychology and sociology in relation to their role not only as guardian’s of the country’s boarders, but intrinsic to its labour supply as well. During their first week of induction the Chief Immigration Officer said if they got their job right at the entry ports they could reduce the issues the enforcement unit has to face.  
 
Former Immigration Chief Franz Manderson summed up the impact immigration officers can have when he told the recruits said, “You have the ability to make, or ruin a person’s day or stay.” The seven new recruits are Jesanna Mencia, Sheria Goff, Alice Edwards, Harry Forbes, Floyd Shaw, Abel Medina and Javin Powery.

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Jamaican shuttle service to fly direct to Cayman Brac

Jamaican shuttle service to fly direct to Cayman Brac

| 18/10/2010 | 0 Comments

(Jamaica Observer): Armed with final approval from the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority for its international operations, the almost year-old Jamaica Air Shuttle (JAS) Limited is ready to start up routes to Cayman Brac, Haiti and Cuba. According to JAS director Christopher Read, the routes were strategically chosen because of their proximity and relevance in terms of the number of Jamaicans living at the Caribbean destinations, to Jamaica. According to Read, much of his hopes for Cayman Brac are premised on the progress the island has made since being pummelled by Hurricane Paloma in 2008.

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2M gallons of sewage for sale

2M gallons of sewage for sale

| 18/10/2010 | 9 Comments

(CNS): The government is hoping for an early Christmas present this year as it aims to finally offload the country’s sewerage system by 10 December. The long promised plan to sell the country’s wastewater services begins today (Monday 18 October) with the official opening of the request for proposals from the private sector on dealing with wastewater over the next 25 years. Although government has suggested it may privatise all of the government owned Water Authority, this proposal request is limited to the maintenance and provision of sewerage services only. The successful bidder will gain exclusive ownership of this part of the government company under licence and will be expected to expand the existing system to meet the country’s future needs.

The sewage treatment plant currently collects and treats 2 million gallons of wastewater every day, as well as a further 20,000 gallons of waste collected from septic tanks. The sewage flows with the help of gravity and several lift stations through 12.5 miles of pipes including 2.5 miles of force mains.
 
In the public advertisement for the sale of the system the Water Authority states that eligible companies must have no less than ten years experience providing wastewater service for a population of at least 60,000 and demonstrate their ability for independent finance without the need for government guarantees.
 
(The RFP is not yet on either the Water Authority or Central Tenders website. However, according to an advertisement in the press, the tender No is CTC10-11/WO/015.)
 
Government has been promoting its intention to sell the sewerage system since taking office in May 2009. When the bond document to raise over $300 million was issued last year, the sewerage system was listed as one of government’s assets that it intended to sell and the book price as of June 2009 was valued at around US$23.3 milllion. However, it appears that to date there has been no significant interest in the purchase of the sewerage system.
 
More recently, backbench MLA Cline Glidden revealed that government was considering selling the whole of the Water Authority on a 25-year lease following an unsolicited offer. Although Glidden did not reveal the details, it is understood the offer had come from Consolidated Water, the private company which supplies water to West Bay customers.
 
Glidden used the private firm as an example of how much money government could earn from water if the authority was privatised. He said it pays out some $8 million to its shareholders each year but government, the only shareholder in the Water Authority, did noteven receive ten percent of that. Glidden said that if government went ahead with the leace arrangement, it would still own the entity and regulate the authority.
 
The suggestion that the Water Authority could be privatised, however, raised concern among workers over job loses. The opposition also noted that, as one of the government’s most profitable entities and valuable assets, the offer would have to be very high to a make it worthwhile. PPM member Alden McLaughlin said that a one-off upfront payment may seem attractive to putcash in the treasury but he wondered where government would go from there.
 
“It may be an attractive proposition to government now to take in a lump sum, but what happens the year after and the year after that?” he asked rhetorically, noting that the jobs and the low price of water also offered a valuable contribution to the local economy. He said the authority was one of the few government owned entities that was profitable and did not put a strain on government and actually added to the coffers each year. “I remain to be persuaded that this will be beneficial to government in the long term and we would have to be concerned about the local jobs as the Water Authority employs a lot of Caymanians, and many in very senior posts.”

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