Archive for September 29th, 2009

Mac may finally reveal all

(CNS): Updated. The public meeting with theLoGB has been moved to the Mary Miller Hall at 7:30pm. McKeeva Bush is expected to tell the Caymanian public the current situation regarding the budget, the status of the UK approval to borrow funds and an updateon what were described as projects supported by the government. Bush has been reluctant to reveal locally what his plans are to get over the impasse between Cayman and the UK on permission for further borrowing. However, speaking in the Financial Times today, he said Cayman had put forward adequate proposals to cut costs and raise revenues without the introduction of new taxes.

"We have identified steps to move forward and restore balance," he told the UK’s leading financial broadsheet on Tuesday. Bush said the Cayman Islands could put its finances, hit by the economic downturn and rising public spending, on an even keel by raising fees for work permits, registration fees and certain services. But he has yet to convince the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which has delayed approval to borrow $372 million to balance the 2009/10 budget.

Echoing some of the sentiments voiced by the previous PPM administration relating to UK power over Cayman, Bush has called for an overhaul of the UK’s power of veto over additional borrowing by its territories, saying he had put a proposal on the agenda of the Overseas Territories Council, which oversees the relationship. Bush told the FT that the argument that the UK had a contingent liability for the Cayman Islands’ borrowings was unfounded.

"Fairness must be the foundation stone . . . If they are not paying or prepared to pay, there is no contingent liability."

Bush was originally scheduled to bring the Budget on Friday of last week. However, it was postponed to Monday and then deferred to an unspecified date this week. A public meeting was also scheduled to take place on the Court House steps last Thursday but that was also cancelled. Yesterday afternoon a notice was issued that he would be reconvening that meeting tonight at 7:30pm.

So far, the LoGB has hinted at a community or payroll tax as well as increases in existing fees. However, a number of suggestions have been proposed by government over the last few weeks to raise revenue and cut spending, only to be rejected later. The first suggestion was to freeze civil service pensions, which was rejected, followed by a 2% pay cut on civil servants’ salaries, which was also dropped. Since then, attention has moved from the public sector to the private, and in particular foreign workers and property owners. The latest suggestions are that work permit fees may be significantly increased.

The people of Cayman may be put out of their suspense this evening if the meeting goes ahead and find out exactly what this year’s budget going to cost them.
 

Continue Reading

Mac may finally reveal all

(CNS): Once again the Leader of Government business is telling the Caymanian public that he will be holding a meeting this evening to discuss the situation with the country’s budget, the status of the UK approval to borrow and an update on what were described as projects supported by the Government. McKeeva Bush has been reluctant to reveal locally what his plans are to get over the impasse between Cayman and the UK regarding permission for further borrowing. However speaking in the Financial Times today he said Cayman had put forward adequate proposals to cut costs and raise revenues without the introduction of new taxes.

(CNS): Once again the Leader of Government business is telling the Caymanian public that he will be holding a meeting this evening to discuss the situation with the country’s budget, the status of the UK approval to borrow and an update on what were described as projects supported by the Government. McKeeva Bush has been reluctant to reveal locally what his plans are to get over the impasse between Cayman and the UK regarding permission for further borrowing. However speaking in the Financial Times today he said Cayman had put forward adequate proposals to cut costs and raise revenues without the introduction of new taxes.

(CNS): Once again the Leader of Government business is telling the Caymanian public that he will be holding a meeting this evening to discuss the situation with the country’s budget, the status of the UK approval to borrow and an update on what were described as projects supported by the Government. McKeeva Bush has been reluctant to reveal locally what his plans are to get over the impasse between Cayman and the UK regarding permission for further borrowing. However speaking in the Financial Times today he said Cayman had put forward adequate proposals to cut costs and raise revenues without the introduction of new taxes.

Continue Reading

PC: ‘Dixon covered up DUI’

(CNS): The long awaited trial of  Deputy Police Commissioner Rudolph Dixon opened in Grand Court today with a police constable testifying that he believed the ‘old boy network’ was at play when he accused Dixon of making charges against former Deputy Commissioner Rudolph Evans go away. The third court room drama initiated by the discredited UK investigation Operation Tempura sees Dixon charged with misconduct in a public office because he instructed officers to let Evans go after he was arrested on suspicion of DUI.

Before calling his first witness, Andrew Radcliff QC, the prosecuting lead attorney, told the jury that they may already have a view about Operation Tempura and it may not be a favourable one. However, he said the jury must put this case in its proper context. He said that this would not have come to light were it not for the work of Operation Tempura but the prosecution was brought not by those officers, but by the attorney general.

Radcliff suggested that letting Evans go was “outrageous behaviour and criminal conduct” on the part of Dixon. He said everyone should be treated equally before the law but, he said, “Rudolph Dixon had fixed the case and made it go away” to help what Radcliff suggested was a friend, former colleague and possible mentor to Dixon throughout his career.

The prosecution’s case now rests solely on this one incident, for which Dixon faces two charges – either misconduct in a public office or perverting the course of justice. The jury of four women and three men were told they should only consider the second if they cannot convict on the first.

Radcliff first placed on the stand the Crown’s key witness, Graham Summers, a serving UK police officer who was a PC in the RCIPS from 2001 to 2004 and who has returned to Cayman to give evidence.

Summers told the court that, while off duty one evening in April 2004, he was driving from Hurley’s roundabout east when he had spotted a Ford truck swerving dangerously across the road with a child passenger and began to follow it. As he did the driving became more erratic and he called 911 to ask for a police car and followed the truck to a house in Savannah. Asked by the prosecution counsel what happened when he arrived at the house, Summers said he asked the man if he could talk to him, but the man first went inside the house to puthis young grandchild in doors.

When the man came out they spoke for a few moments before the police car arrived. Summers then told the uniformed officers what he had seen and that it was this man who was driving and he believed he was drunk. It was then that Sommers said he learned that Evans was a former deputy commissioner in the RCIPS.

He said the officers who arrived did not have a breathalyzer so they called for a traffic unit car, which soon followed. Summers told the court that the officers were uncomfortable with the situation but Evans was asked to blow into the device. However, Summers suggested that Evans was uncooperative and the officers couldn’t get a reading on the first attempt. On the second attempt the machine malfunctioned. Sensing the discomfort from the other officers at the scene, Summers said he insisted the man was arrested on suspicion of DUI, which he was. “There was a lot of hesitancy and the other officers were looking to the Sergeant at the scene for guidance,” he said.

As he left the scene, Summers said he called ahead to Burman Scott, the duty officer for the evening at George Town police station. He first told the story without referring to the name of the arrested man. However, Summers said when he revealed Evans’ identity Burman Scott said to him, “No, no that man put pips on my shoulder.”

Summers continued with his evidence and told the jury that later that evening he received a call from Rudy Dixon, the Deputy Commissioner, who told him Evans had been released because Sommers had not been in uniform, and based on a previous case there would be no chance of prosecution. Summers told the court he was angry and upset and was “robust” with Dixon, pressing for details on the legal authority as he insisted the arrest was made by a uniform officer and not him and therefore would be a safe arrest. He said Dixon would not furnish him with the details of the stated case.

A few days after the incident Summers said he wrote a report about the evening’s events, which he gave to his senior officer at Bodden Town Police station, the then police Commissioner Buel Braggs and DC Dixon. However, after a few weeks went by and he had still not heard from his superiors regarding the report, he tried to get an appointment with Braggs but failed. Sommers revealed how he then waited outside Braggs’ office for almost two hours one afternoon until the senior officer would talk to him about the incident.

He said that when he eventually spoke with Braggs he said he would look closely at the report and investigate the incident. However, Summers was due to return to the UK, and by the time he left in July, he said nothing happened until almost four years later when he was visited by two officers from Operation Tempura in Derbyshire, who interviewed him.

During cross examination, Dixon’s attorney Jonathan Rose took Summer through his interview with the Special Police Investigation Team (SPIT) from Operation Tempura, which differed considerably from his evidence given to the Crown based on the original report. He had told SPIT that he believed the officers at the scene of Evans house had deliberately told him the breathalyzer had malfunction and that they were trying to fob him off. Although in court he became very reluctant to admit that the officers at the scene were doing that and said it was only one possibility he was considering. During the interview with SPIT, Summers had admitted how angry he was and had shouted at senior officers to arrest Evans. He admitted to the court that he had raised his voice and been insistent saying, “Get this man under arrest.”

He also admitted that he may have asked Dixon to call him on the night and not the other way round as he believed he called the police station after the incident a number of times to make sure Evans was being processed.  

Cross examination by Rose continues on Tuesday morning in what is expected to be a lengthy ten day trial with more than 23 witnesses to be called.

Continue Reading

School dispute escalates

(CNS): Problems with the school development projects escalated Monday when the developer Tom Jones International (TJI) became embroiled in a dispute on the Clifton Hunter site at Frank Sound with a local labour broker. With work now at a standstill on the John Gray site and TJI in dispute with government over non-payment, the contractor moved full time workers employed directly by TJI to Clifton Hunter and told the labour broker to reduce his workers at the site accordingly. But Brent McLean (left) refused as he said the TJI workers  were on permits and were pushing out his Caymanian men. (Photo courtesy of News 27)

McLean told CNS that since the last dispute with TJI he has had 37 Caymanian workers on the Frank Sound site, but at 6pm on Friday evening an email was dispatched by the general contractor telling East End Steel to remove 30 workers by Monday morning. McLean said that his workers, however, turned up for work as usual as the email came too late to notify them. When they arrived they reportedly encountered non-Caymanian workers in their place and refused to leave. McLean told CNS that he intended to fight this issue as it was not fair that Caymanians were being replaced by foreign labour. He said the workers staged a sit-in, and while the police were called the RCIPS concluded it was a civil matter and left.

“We are taking a stand this time,” said McLean “It is not going to happen that TJI can replace local workers with foreign labour. We are not playing games with TJI anymore. The reality is this is a government project, being funded by the people of the Cayman Islands and Caymanians are going to work on that site.”  

TJI, however, has denied that any of the labourers sent from John Gray were work permit holders but has insisted that they were all Caymanians laid off as a result of the government’s non-payment of the contract at that site. TJI  said every one of the construction workers from the JGHS site sent to Clifford Hunter were Caymanians. As opposed to being temporary employees employed through labour contractors, as is the case with those employed by East End Steel, these men were full time Caymanian employees of TJI, a spokesperson for TJI stated.

Rather than being foreigners pitted against Caymanians as East End Steel is suggesting, the general contractor insists that these were Caymanians in full time work with TJI. The contractor admitted that there are other work permit holders on site but not one of the labourers brought from JGHS was on a permit.

Meanwhile, TJI has also responded to the government regarding the dispute over the money due for the JGHS project. In a full page advertisement in the Caymanian Compass that will appear Tuesday (29 September) TJI has set out its side of the dispute and insists that government has defaulted.

Although anxious to return to work, Hunter Jones, the director of TJI, says his firm is a construction company and not a bank. “Government must meet its obligations under its contract which was negotiated and signed by the former administration,” he says in the full page statement.

He sets out the full story of the increasing costs on the school projects and says major design changes presented a significant financial problem to the previous government.

“These corrections and additions were significant, adding millions to the total cost of the projects and, of course, extending the time line to complete the projects. Significantly, Government had not budgeted any funds for these contingencies,” TJI has stated in the advertisement.

The contractor explains that it offered to take out a loan to help the previous government keep the schools on track as the administration had exceeded its borrowing limits for the 2008/09 year. As a result of a meeting with government, TJI secured a short-term line of credit of $12 million from a local bank to purchase equipment and materials from overseas as well as to fund change orders.

Jones said the PPM administration agreed, promising to allocate a previously scheduled $10.5 million “balloon payment” in July 2009 — when government entered its new fiscal year — to pay off the bridge loan. “While it was highly unusual for us to take out a bank loan to, in effect, pay ourselves," said Jones, “it was the only way to keep the project going.”

The contractor states that government never made its promised “balloon payment”, but the new government encouraged TJI to negotiate further with its bank (Scotiabank) to extend the due date of the loan and increase the amount to fund both projects, giving all parties an opportunity to explore a public/private partnership  to restructure the financing of the projects.

However, the contractor says no deal has been made and in the interim the monthly payments for work done and costs incurred need to be paid.  Jones explained that the amounts due have been submitted to the government’s quantity surveyor, who has verified and certified them.

 In July, TJI said it submitted its application for payment, which was certified for approximately $3.6 million, due 10 September. No payment was received by 17 September and the following day TJI gave formal notice that it would stop work one week later until payment was forthcoming. Jones said no payment was made by 24 September so the site was closed down.

Jones added that it is only in recent days that government has asserted that TJI was one day late in submitting its application for payment which would mean that funds are not due until October, which he strongly refutes. Government is now also alleging that it has overpaid TJI on the project.

“This is nonsense,” said Jones. “Government’s Quantity Surveyor and Architect ‘certified’ our application for payment and confirmed the date it was contractually due. The Government apparently is willing to risk the jobs of 200 people – many of them Caymanian – and jeopardize the John Gray project and the entire educational system on an invalid 24-hour technicality.”

Nevertheless, Jones has said he remains hopeful that the issues can be resolved and his company and the Ministry of Education can move forward.

Continue Reading