Prosecutor to cost $2.8m

| 27/01/2011

(CNS): The deputy governor says that the country will have a director of public prosecutions that will be charged with handling the criminal cases in the country’s courts before the end of 2011. The new office, which will be formed from part of the current legal department, will cost around $2.8m per year and have the responsibility of prosecuting solely criminal cases on behalf of the crown. The drafting of the country’s legislation, legal advice to government and civil work will all remain with the Attorney General’s Chambers. The new post, established under the 2009 Cayman Islands Constitution, is expected to be advertised in the next few months, Donovan Ebanks revealed in the Legislative Assembly earlier this month.

Responding to an opposition parliamentary question from Alden Mclaughlin, Ebanks said a job description had been developed for the DPP and, “subject to funding”, the new top legal position would be advertised during the next few months.

The deputy governor revealed that the job has been assessed at grade D and will pay a salary of up to $125,000. As the person is not likely to be officially appointed until the later part of 2011, he said, the job would not impact this current fiscal year’s budget. The new Judicial and Legal Services Commission will be advising the governor on the post, and that body has now drafted a law to underpin its operations.

In the 2011/12 strategic policy statement it was revealed that the new office will cost around $2.8million, which will be made up of the $2.6m currently allocated to the legal department for prosecution services along with another quarter of a million for the DPP’s salary and extra staff, such as a secretary, and the cost of opening the office.

Ebanks said it was not yet clear exactly how the staff from the existing department would be divided but it was expected that many of the public sector lawyers currently working on criminal cases on behalf of legal services would now move to the new independent office. Currently, it is the solicitor general that heads up the prosecution of criminal cases but that role is normally a more civil role, and so is likely to stay within the Attorney General’s Chambers.

McLaughlin queried what exactly the attorney general would do in future if the DPP was taking on the criminal work and the solicitor general the civil work, but Ebanks stated the AG would still head up the legal department, which included the civil work as well as legal drafting and the advice to government.

Ebanks denied any need for a new layer of bureaucracy straining the public purse as a result of the change. He pointed out that, although there would be the public prosecutor’s salary and the costs associated with establishing a new office, the majority of lawyers for the DPP would simply transfer from legal to the independent office of the new public prosecutor.

The creation of the office of the DPP is one of a number of outstanding issues that were provided for under the 2009 Cayman Islands Constitution which have yet to be addressed.

Government still has a list of issues which are still outstanding some 14 months after the constitution came into force. The Standing Orders in the Legislative Assembly need to be changed, a draft order to create three new seats for the parliament needs to come to the LA, a guide to the operations of Cabinet needs to be published and the legislation for people initiated referendums needs to be passed.

Although the commission charged with overseeing standards in public life has been appointed, so far it has not begun its work. In a short report after the commission’s first meeting the members said that it could carry out its constitutional mandate without appropriate legislation. Ebanks told his legislative colleagues that a draft of the law to underpin that important commission was almost complete. 

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Changes are always welcome but who knows what the implications are. I’m not sure how the justice system will improve all of a sudden, and anything related to change in budgets upsets me anyway.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    The solicitor general should become the director of public prosecutions as this is the most rational and cost effective way forward. Suitable younger caymanians should then be identified to take over as both the attorney general and the director of prosecutions.

    The deputy governor is being outsmarted again.  

  3. Absurdistani says:

    Waste! Waste! Waste!

    Just another day in Absurdistan.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Hold on!! Someone needs to get the facts straight and get the judiciary to work with the RCIPS.

     

    Didnt the commissioner just announce that crime had only risen by 3.4%? So i guess its projected that crime will increase which is the rationalization for this new position.

    Lets see which crony/peer they will bring in for this position.

     

  5. IRON CLAD says:

    Pardon me on the inaccuracy in saying the 2.8m being ADDED to the expenditure, however at least another $125k added for the SAME inadequacies we have enough of already.

    Correction – Should I say an ADDED INADEQUACY in this case.

    Oh boy… when are we, The People, going to put an end to all the madness and abuse of our tax money(and possibly future Govt. Pensions)???

  6. IRON CLAD says:

    WHY do we need this position? The Legal Department has done a good enough job ALL these DECADES of having prosecutions done. However, on the contrary, there has been a very significant inconsistency in the ‘Legal/Justice System’ which has allowed for certain ‘CRIMINALS’, primarily in our political system to get away with some of the known or obvious crimes that were committed and continues.

    In my firmest opinion, this new ‘Prosecutor’ may have the ability to isolate cases more than usual and may only serve to aide in the obscuring, squashing  and eventual dismissal of any future civil or POLITICAL crimes.

    We just know there will be nothing completely positive behind this new position. Further more… 2.8m freaking dollars being added to Govt. expenditure, is a lot of tax-payer’s dollars for the SAME damned ‘System’. Don’t we agree?

    IRON CLAD as ever.

  7. Anonymous says:

    The Attorney General and Solicitor General have been responsible for criminal prosecutions. They now get to SHED this huge responsibility AND keep their high salary. The new Director of Public prosectutions will be paid a lower salary than both the AG and SG.

    They must both be laughing!

  8. Anonymous says:

    I think the titleof this article is a little misleading since the article itself explains that $2.6M of th $2.8 is already being spent in respect of criminal prosecutions and will simply be transferred to the DPP’s office. The problem arises in that it is now proposed to have both a Solicitor General (who currently essentially performs the functions of the DPP) and a DPP. I agree with Mr. McLaughlin’s take on this – if the Solicitor General is now to focus simply on civil matters it appears that she will be getting the same salary for doing half of her previous job.

    The AG is paid a whopping great salary for a civil servant. He should be earning his keep. After all he is already supported by other attorneys in his dept. The bottom line is that the current SG should have simply been transferred into the role of DPP and there would been an instant savings of CI$130,000.

    This is not a problem with the Constitution but with the way it is being implemented.

  9. Anonymous says:

    So here we go again increasing the Civil Service. And then we balme the poor Civil Servants for enlarging their own numbers!

    Everytime a new Law is passed it brings in yet another tier of beaucracy and then the Civil Servants get blamed for being too large when the onus of responsibility is really on the political leadership who crafts these laws and policies.

    So who will take responsibility for this one? Or will it be blamed on England again?

     

    • Libertarian says:

      A Bloated Civil Service = Higher Fees, Duties, and Licenses

      Whose fault is it? Both governments! Both the UK and the Cayman Islands local governments! They only appear to be for and by the People, but we know it is all about power and political interest!

  10. No Way!!!!! says:

    Just another office to pacify a UDP supporter or supporters!
    $2.8mil?
    You really have to be joking!

    • Caymanians for logic says:

      This office and 6 other commissions were created by the PPM administration, led primarily by MLA Alden, in the new constitution. This constitution was marketed by the UK and the PPM into existence. In fact less than a MAJORITY of registered voters actually voted for this document. Surely not democratic of the Mother country but they allowed it to happen.

      So not being an avid PPM nor UDP fan, we need to get our facts correct and blamed the relevant party where appropriate. Just wait to see what this constitution will cost us to implement. The 500 new civil servants alone. Add to that the cost of defending the country on human rights(see todays compass), electoral boundary disputes, privy council defences and the like.

      I estimate that the new constitution will cost the country about $45,000,000 per year to implement.

      • Anonymous says:

        I don’t know how accurate your financial cost estimate will prove to be, but it is frightening to see the extent of additional costs of every implemented change thus far from our new constitution.

        Implementing the new constitution alone, will keep the government afoul of the PMFL.

      • scary says:

        bo-bo/te-te, wha section of the constitution u r’ferrin to?

      • BORN FREE says:

        No one is questioning who created the office, the question or complaint here is the $2.8 million, that’s right Anon 08:36, $2.8 million! Get it?