Archive for September, 2011
‘Rollover may cost election’
(CNS): The decision to suspend the rollover to reform, or possibly remove, the policy could cost the next election, the premier told members of the business community on Wednesday, but he said he was still prepared to go ahead with the review. McKeeva Bush said that even though people might “twist things around”, he could not see the economy turned upside down and do nothing about it. Pointing to the potential damage to Cayman that the exodus of as many as 5,000 people over the next two years could cause, Bush said he had to something about rollover and was willing to take the political risk. But the premier told the business community that it had to support government initiatives to train more Caymanians.
Delivering the key note speech at the Chamber of Commerce annual legislative lunch, where all members of the country’s parliament are invited to mix and mingle with the business community, the premier said he was well aware of the risk the move to suspend rollover might pose and said, “Our own people probably won’t understand,” but given the situation, as finance minister, he said, it would have been irresponsible to leave it in place.
“If I lose the general election because some ‘bright’ person twists this around and says I am against Caymanians, then so be it,” Bush told the Chamber audience and said he would give opponents a run for their money in West Bay. “But nationally, I am under no illusions about this. We can lose and that’s the risk we take as a political party. But I can’t see our economy turned upside down and not do something about it.”
Bush said that if rollover “has to go, then it has to go,”. He pointed out that it would be difficult to do away with some form of fixed policy and suggested that the country might end up with term limits on occupations. The premier said he believed there was a good committee in place and they would examine what was working what wasn’t and what would be the best way forward.
He told the business community that while the legislation would be amended this week to allow every employer to apply for a work permit for employees due to be rolled over, not every worker would be able to stay beyond the seven year limit. An extension would be granted only when employers have demonstrated a real need and that they have done everything possible to employee Caymanians, the premier stated.
Bush spoke about the need to give certainty to the business community to attract back those who have left and attract new investment, and said it was the uncertainty that had driven business away.
The premier confirmed that he was also bringing an amendment to the immigration bill to the Legislative Assembly on Friday that would empower the boards and the chief immigration officer to grant work permits for up to ten years. These long term permits will provide the much sort after security of tenure for senior management and specialist occupations, which Bush believed would be welcomed by the business community, though there would be pay-back.
“I believe companies that take advantage of this new facility should demonstrate their social responsibility by supporting long term human capital development by contributing financially for a national training initiative,” Bush said.
He added that this would include scholarships and on-going training that would demonstrate that government is serious about training local employees and that the private sector was joining in and doing more to help with that training.
“We must encourage and train,” Bush said and spoke about the need for the private sector to be more involved in the community and encourage inclusiveness. As government helped to create an environment for business, the private sector had to take its responsibility to create jobs and training. He said the private sector wanted less bureaucracy and business friendly policies and government wanted to help, which was why it was taking the political risk of addressing the rollover policy. In return, the private sector had to help generate opportunities for Caymanians.
“I am willing to take the public and political heat for changing the immigration policies to allow businesses to thrive,” Bush said and asked for the businesses to stop measuring success in the amount of money generated in our economy but in how far and wide the wealth was spread. “I expect you in the business community to support solid training initiatives that lead to job placements and advancements for Caymanians and a more efficient workforce, which will lead to more profits.”
He asked the private sector to help create an inclusive, rather than an exclusive society, and assist with a national training initiative and partner with government to make a change to offer more opportunities to all the people.
The lunch was hosted by the Chamber of Commerce at the Westin.
Women footballers prepare for tournament
(CFU): Fourteen-year-old Janel Ebanks was the stand out in the dreaded fitness beep test. The multi-stage fitness test is used by sports coaches and trainers to estimate an athlete's VO2 max (maximum oxygen uptake). The test is the most accurate way to test a player’s cardiovascular fitness, which is a major component of physical fitness. Janel finally ended the test on Stage 30 with a Distance of 1.200 KM with a maximum oxygen capacity VO2 reading of 46.48. To put that number into perspective the average English Premiership Professional Football players VO2 max reading will fluctuate between 56.00 – 77.00. Fourteen-year-old Nicole Whittaker also put up some very impressive numbers, stopping at Stage 28.
Shanice Monteith and Amanda Frederick both stopped at Stage 26.
The Cayman Islands National Women’s Program is preparing for their upcoming trip to Suriname, where they will compete in the Group B of the CFU Women’s U-20 Qualifying Tournament. The Cayman Islands will compete against Suriname on October 18, and face Trinidad and Tobago on October 20, 2011. The girls have been in training sinceJune this year, the first beep test the girls carried out was taken on June 30, 2011 and the top performer was 19 year old Jessica Ebanks who stopped at Stage 21 with a VO2 max of 43.26
Women’s Technical Director Thiago Cunha complimented his players progression: “The beep test is one of the most physical, and demanding fitness tests, which every footballer dreads, I have to compliment the girls on their attitude and dedication, they comforted this test head on, all 23 players who are currently on Island were in attendance, I am very happy, we have 3 more weeks to work with them and we will continue to improve technically and motivate the girls for the games in Suriname”.
The girls will head into a weekend training camp Friday where they will continue team preparations.
Techy zone bill tops agenda as MLAs return to work
(CNS): The law to create Special Economic Zones, designed to facilitate the proposed Cayman Enterprize City where technology related businesses can set up in Cayman under different rules from other commercial entities, will be up for debate as the Legislative Assembly returns this morning (Wednesday 28 September.) Government will also be amending the national pensions law to allow people to remove money to invest in a property, though this bill has not yet been set down for the prescribed 21 days to allow for consultation. Government will also be amending the rules relating to the cinematography board.
Three private members motions are now filed and ready to be debated during this second meeting of this parliament. Two motions, filed by the independent member for North Side, asking government to reduce the duty on fuel and remove the duty on medicines and medical supplies, carried over from the last meeting are scheduled to make the floor of the assembly.
The opposition has three new motions for this meeting which relate to the issue of rising crime. The first of those motions scheduled to be debated is an amendment to the firearms law and other relevant legislation to allow the general public to carry pepper spray lawfully.
The Legislative Assembly is scheduled to begin at 10am and is open to the public.
PPM:Focus needs to be on PR
(CNS):The government doesn't need to introduce a temporary suspension to the rollover policy but needs to eliminate it right away and concentrate on addressing the permanent residency approval system in order to manage the country’s immigration issues, the leader of the opposition has said. Alden McLaughlin says that the suspension and planned review of the policy are unnecessarily opening up the system to challenges by creating uncertainty. He said that the PPM supports the repeal of the term limit policy and introducing a system that allows everyone who stays on island for eight years to apply for permanent residency and address that application process so the right people and the right numbers are given security of tenure.
“We should fix this issue now as it’s not complicated,” McLaughlin told CNS, adding that the focus had to be on amending the permanent residency application process. “We need to amend the PR provisions so anyone who has been here for eight years can apply through a clear point system that provides a balance where the bar is not too high that no one gets through or too low that everyone does.”
He also stated that anyone who stayed up to ten years would be mandated to make a PR application.
McLaughlin explained that the PR process needed to become the point where the country can decide who gets to stay, ensuring that those who remain in the Cayman Islands, with the possibility of gaining status, will be in a position not only to make a positive contribution to Cayman society and the economy but to take care of themselves and not become a burden on the state in later life.
Offering his support to a complete repeal of the rollover policy and key employee to remove any uncertainty and in favour of addressing the permanent residency application process, McLaughlin added that it could no longer be administered by a voluntary board. He said if the points system was clear, an applicant either scored enough points to be granted residency or not, and there would be no need for subjectivity. The boards should not be making the decisions but only serving as a tribunal to hear appeals or dealing with unique cases. He recommended moving the system to an administrative process and beginning that preparation as soon as possible.
“We cannot continue with the present system where the PR is run by boards,” he said. “We need to put in place a proper system of checks and balances that are based on a clear point system that can be measured and monitored.”
A review of rollover was a waste of time, McLaughlin said, and queried exactly what the original immigration review team had been doing since it was established more than two years ago. He said there was a need now to address the permanent residency application process in order to be ready for any surge in applications that would come as a result of repealing the rollover policy. The plan to suspend rather than repeal was simply pushing the problem down the line.
“I was the first to acknowledge that rollover needs to change,” he said. “But suspending it for two years will just pass it on to the next administration to deal with,” adding that the preparation for the increase in PR applications had to begin now
He also queried claims by government officials that they would be able to suspend rollover now to address the current problem of a mass exodus of workers over the next eighteen month without allowing all of those people to use the time acquired by the temporary situation to apply for PR.
McLaughlin pointed out that legally anyone who is due for rollover in the next eighteen months and can now apply for another permit will pass the eight year lawful residency barrier, and he could not see a way that it would not count. McLaughlin warned that it was extremely unlikely that such a claim by government could stand up in court as people were either lawfully resident in Cayman or they were not.
He said these issues were creating unnecessary uncertainty, which could all be eliminated by changing the focus to the permanent residency application. At this point, the country could lawfully control who it wanted to stay in the Cayman Islands and advance towards status based on a fair, transparent and sensible point system, where expat workers could see clearly what they needed to do if they wished to remain here.
Cayman could not return to the way things were before the term limit was introduced, the opposition leader stated, as he pointed out that people could not be allowed to remain in the islands indefinitely without any security of tenure, potentially creating a situation that had occurred before the mass status grants of 2003. The opposition leader said that had created tremendous ill-will and the country could not afford to repeat that mistake.
With the term limit having failed, McLaughlin said it was now time to allow all those who remained on work-permits for eight years or more to apply for PR, but to speed up, streamline and improve that process.
UK super-cop to advise RCIP
(CNS): One of Britain’s most senior police officers and gang experts will be visiting the Cayman Islands next week to offer some advice and support to the RCIPS regarding the surge in gang related murders this month. Jon Murphy, the Chief Constable of Merseyside Police and the man who led a UK initiative to tackle gang crime in the UK in 2007 and who is now the National Serious & Organised Crime Coordinator for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), will be offering the benefit of his extensive experience in gang crime to the RCIPS. He will be examining the Cayman police service’s immediate response to the recent murders and offer advice on what more the police could be doing about gang related crime.
The governor announced Murphy’s visit at a special meeting on Tuesday evening at the Westin, organised by the Chamber of Commerce and the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, with government officials and the business community to update them on the current situation regarding crime on island and what efforts are being made to stem the resurgence of gang violence.
Governor Duncan Taylor explained that since the police commissioner had written to CC Murphy to request a temporary delegation of Merseyside officers to come to Cayman to assist with the investigations of the five murders in eight days this month, the UK’s own ‘super-cop’ had also agreed to make a visit and offer what advice he could to the local police.
The commissioner had written to the UK senior officer asking for a team of sixteen officers from Merseyside to help with the investigations into the recent killing spree on Grand Cayman and Murphy also offered to visit. The Merseyside super-cop heads up the service which also polices Liverpool, where local cops have faced an entrenched gang culture. Murphy has used tactics in the city that involved disrupting every aspect of the lives of known gang members, which garnered noticeable results.
The governor said that it was great for Cayman to have someone of Murphy’s stature and extensive experience to visit and get his views on how things have been handled so far and going forward. The governor also revealed that consideration was being given to establishing a gang unit within the RCIPS and that this would also be area for discussion with Murphy, who, he said, was expected to arrive in Cayman on Monday.
Taylor also revealed that one of the commitments made to the members of the Legislative Assembly recently after they voted extra crime fighting funds was to have an independent review of the work of the RCIPS and their tactics from someone from a different jurisdiction outside of the UK.
Taylor said that there had been some arguments posed that the Cayman Islands needed to adopt more American-type tactics as the RCIPS was not hard enough. Although the governor said he did not agree with that argument, an external review was a worthwhile exercise. Taylor told the business community that as a result he had been in touch with law enforcement officials in Canada, who were now arranging for an expert from that country to come out to Cayman for a short period and look at polices and tactics to see whether the RCIPS could be doing more, or doing things differently to improve the effectiveness of the service.
Taylor also revealed that he was considering bringing a prosecution specialist from the UK to examine how recent cases have been put together and presented in the Grand Court. Pointing to the recent string of acquittals in serious cases, the governor said that while he was not criticising the judgements handed down, it was clear that lessons could be learned in how those cases were presented and how forensic evidence was compiled.
“Can we present our cases better than we did? Were some of those acquittals partly the result of the fact we didn’t present the cases in the best possible way?” the governor asked as he spoke to the members of the business community. Agreeing with the commissioner’s recent comments, he said he believed that some of the recent crime may have been prompted by the acquittals and it would be useful to have someone from outside review the recent cases.
Mac calls for more power
(CNS): The country’s premier has said that the elected officials don’t have enough power when it comes to dealing with crime. Two and a half years after the people of the Cayman Islands voted narrowly in favour of the new constitution, McKeeva Bush was still attacking it and those who voted for it at a West Bay meeting last week. Bush told his constituents that the document did not give enough power over security to the elected officials. He said it was not that much different from the old one and people should not have voted for it. “Your elected representatives should have more say on these matters,” Bush added as he spoke about the limited power the elected government had to address the rise in violent crime.(Photo Dennie WarrenJr)
The premier stated that the new constitution restricted the elected government from getting involved in operational aspects of law enforcement and security. “The governor himself has said publicly, when it comes to matters of crime and security, the buck stops with him,” Bush said. “I cannot give any direction to the police commissioner or the governor for that matter … and for those of you who voted for the constitution, let that message be loud and clear.”
Although elected officials can raise their concerns and they voted millions of dollars for the police budget, they did not have the power to demand that it is spent correctly, Bush lamented. “They are the ones that have the authority to say where it’s going to be spent, how it’s going to be spent and when it’s going to be spent,” he said. “I rue the day that those of you that voted for the constitution did so.”
One of the things that he said he felt was totally wrong was the limited power the politicians had. While they should never be able to have a say over prisoners or who goes to court, “since people feel that way,” he said, the politicians should have more power and he insisted that the elected arm of government had done everything within its power to deal with the current spiralling crime situation.
He also told the West Bay audience that things were going to get worse with the advent of the Bill of Rights, which he said was already costing the country millions of dollars even before the law suits against government started.
“Don’t say I didn’t tell you about this constitution,” he warned, saying that even the police were limited under the constitution because of human rights. The premier stated that when the Bill of Rights is implemented next year, that would be when the problems really started. “You haven’t seen anything yet,” he added. Bush said government would be spending around $12 million, some of it on buildings, even before it spent money on the claims he seemed to think would be made against it.
The buildings Bush referred to are those being built to create a juvenile or young offenders institution, which Cayman has never had. The criminal justice system currently houses children who break the law with adult offenders, a situation that most experts agree increases the risk of those young people re-offending.
The premier said that people were criticising and vilifying him instead of criticising the people with the constitutional powers that “you voted for and you gave them”, as he attacked the constitutional situation. He told people to look at who has the authority and ask why, as the premier, he had to defer to those powers. He complained that while the elected officials voted around $37 million in total now for the police this financial year, they could not direct how any of it was spent. Bush said that government would be watching very closely over the short term how the police tackled the current crime situation.
Asked by former West Bay candidate Woody DaCosta if the commissioner would be given a performance standard, time line or some level of accountability for the money, Bush said he could not force the commissioner to be accountable and the governor does not have to listen to anything the elected representatives have to say. DaCosta asked how it was that government could continue to throw money at the police but no one was being held to account. Regardless of the constitution, DaCosta said, the premier was in a position to apply pressure on behalf of the public because the constitution says that the governor has to act in the interests of the Caymanian people.
Bush said it didn’t matter what pressure he applied; if the governor did not like it, he simply went to the UK and told them he disagreed with the elected officials. With a constitution that he said he believed was no different from what the country had before, at the end of the day the governor could still do what he wanted.
Property sales up over 200% CIREBA reports
(CNS): The real estate market is showing signs of real improvement, according to the local real estate brokers body, which says that property sales up to the end of August this year show a 203% increase over the same period of 2010. There has been a total of CI$422 million transfers for 2011, compared to CI$207 million for the same period last year, CI$255m in 2009 and CI$403 million in the last boom year of 2008. The Cayman Islands Real Estate Brokers Association (CIREBA) President Jeremy Hurst said in the latest market report that this was positive news, but he warned that while value was up, transaction numbers were down ten percent on last year.
He added that there were only 1006 transfers in 2011, compared to 1173, 1350 and 1,602 in 2010, 2009 and 2008 respectively. This averages about 15% per annum drop in property transactions over the four year period, which Hurst said was a clear indication that whilst sales at the top end of the market remain solid, the number of sales at the mid to lower end have declined annually since 2008.
This indicates that significantly less people are buying lower to mid-priced condominiums and development lots, Hurst stated in the CIREBA report. Statistics which analyze sales by property type support this, showing a significant 50% drop in the number of home lots sold and 25% drop in the number of condominiums sold since the last boom year of 2008.
Pointing to the population decline due to staff cutbacks and immigration policies, including rollover, as an explanation, Hurst said that the recent announcements of changes to that policy was good news for the sector.
“The other good news is that a number of the major projects on the cards appear to be moving forward, with one, the West Bay Road bypass, even breaking ground. If we can keep up the momentum with the Shetty Hospital, the Airport and Port projects and the Enterprise City we should still be in good shape during the years to come,” he said.
The real estate body president also pointed to what Hurst said appeared to be two significant residential and resort projects for the Bodden Town area working their way through the due diligence processes. Hurst did not spell out what these were and stated that they were still “some way off” but said they were a sign of confidence in the economy.
He pointed to the need to keep “crime in check” as he added that the recent outbreak would make it difficult to sell property. In general though, Hurst heralded the progress over the last quarter and, not surprisingly, gave a positive outlook for the market‘s winter season and beyond.
The full market report and previous versions are available on the CIREBA website
Standing up for Cayman
(CNS): Former Cayman Islands Monetary Authority Chairman Tim Ridley today (Wednesday) joins a group of eminent trust law and tax practitioners from the UK and Canada who will be speaking to a group of UK journalists, politicians and trust professionals at an event in Londonheld to highlight the importance of Cayman as a worldwide financial centre. Presented by the Cayman Islands branch of the Society of Trusts and Estate Practitioners (STEP), the event called ‘Cayman Uncovered Live and Uncut!’, will be moderated by well-known BBC presenter John Humphrys and will feature speakers familiar with Cayman’s financial services practices but not necessarily located in the Islands.
Maples and Calder partner Justin Appleyard, who is also a past STEP Cayman chairman and a member of STEP’s steering committee organising the event, anticipates a lively and candid no-holds-barred panel session with tough questioning by the audience of a panel which will include Ridley, plus journalists, following presentations by the trust law and tax professionals.
Appleyard says that the speakers are the top in their field and will be speaking on a range of topics. He anticipates Christopher McCall, QC, a leading trust barrister in the UK who has frequently appeared in Cayman Courts, will speak about the quality of the Cayman Courts and legal system in general, while solicitor Mark Bridges, whose clients include the Queen, will discuss the importance of Cayman’s stable legal system for clients domiciled in countries in relatively unstable parts of the world.
Frances Stephens, a partner at PwC will underline the importance of Cayman’s legal system for philanthropy and Richard Hay is slated to discuss Cayman’s role with regard to international tax and regulatory arbitrage.
The event has plenty of time for networking, which Appleyard believes will play a crucial part in the overall goal to convert those in the UK who are unconvinced of Cayman’s important role within the global economy.
Ridley states: “STEP Cayman is to be congratulated on organising this timely event in London. It is an excellent opportunity to showcase Cayman’s private client strengths to London based professional advisors to global high net worth families. And, in this highly competitive era, it underscores how important this business is to Cayman and how vital it is to promote Cayman to key people in key locations.”
Prisoners spend day focusing on ‘sentences’
(CNS): Inmates at HMP Northward were focusing on a different kind of sentence on Friday when they spent the day involved in a reading marathon. Government officials, volunteers from Cayman Islands reading aides and other guests joined the prisoners in a day celebrating literacy. Not being able to tackle written sentences has played a significant part in the reason why many inmates are currently serving sentences in the prison. However, despite the fundamental importance of literacy to getting out of a life of crime the prison still has to depend on volunteers to provide literacy classes to prisoners. Speaking at the read-a-thon the prison director Dwight Scott said no one should be ashamed about not being able to read and write but what is shameful, he said, is doing nothing about it.
Dwight Scott said the prison was currently seeking to secure some form of assessment tool with which proper and accurate statistics relating to literacy in the prison could be measured. At the moment the Cayman Islands Prison Service does not have an exact figure of the levels and standards of literacy among inmates.
“There is absolutely no way we can move forward unless we have these facts,” he said. “Literacy is a bridge from misery and a tool for daily life.”
Speaking at the day-long reading event under the theme ‘Literacy heals’ Scott said that irrespective of being in prison inmates needed to develop a thirst for learning as he said it would help them to not return to the institution. He said learning and literacy helped people to make rational decisions and think about their actions. The prison director said it was important for those inmates who were developing a taste for learning to spread it among their fellow prisoners.
CIRA which provides two hour classes twice per week for inmates who can’t read has estimated that more than 80% of inmates are functionally illiterate– the term used to describe literacy skills that are inadequate to manage daily living and employment tasks requiring reading skills beyond a basic level and many of those inmates are unable to read at all.
With such a limited about of time given each week to tackling the literacy problems volunteers from CIRA have been working with the prison training inmates who can read to teach their fellow prisoners who can’t which offers some opportunity for the inmates who are learning to read outside of the designated four hours taught by volunteers. It also helps to address the shame felt by some prisoners as well as the stigma others attach to those who cannot read.
The governor who was also present at the event and who joined in the read-a-thon told the prisoners that improvements inmates made in literacy and numeracy during their time in prison was an important consideration to the parole board for consideration of early release and was a tool that can help prisoners to get out of jail.
“When recommendations come to me to release someone early it is always one of the things I look at,” Duncan Taylor told the inmates, adding that wherever he sees a prisoner who has made an effort to improve it always counts as a really good sign of someone who is committed to making a better life.
“I am a very strong supporter of bringing literacy in to the prison and trying to encourage people and to give inmates the opportunity to enjoy reading,” the governor said, as he thanked all those involved in helping with prisoner literacy.
Close Brothers profits fall 78% following offshore sale
(Bloomberg):Close Brothers Group Plc (CBG) the British investment bank founded in 1878, said profit for the year declined 78 percent as it sold its U.K. offshore and Cayman Islands units. Full-year net income fell to 14.6 million pounds ($22.8 million) from 65.9 million pounds in the year-earlier period, the London-based lender said in a statement today. It posted an exceptional charge of 46.9 million pounds and a loss from discontinued operations of 28.1 million pounds. Close Brothers is restructuring its asset management business and sold the UK offshore and Cayman Islands operations to focus on its banking, securities and asset management divisions.
Adjusted operating profit at the banking unit climbed 34 percent in the period.
“Economic and market conditions are uncertain, but we have a strong financial position, continue to see good prospects for our businesses, and are well placed to continue delivering solid results,” the bank said in the statement.