Archive for September 2nd, 2010

Under the Public Management and Finance Law government ministries, portfolios, companies and statutory authorities are required to hand in financial reports for auditing to the Auditor General’s Office on 31 August. The AG and his team have until the end of October to complete the audits. Then the government bodies must prepare their annual reports, including the financial statements and the audit reports, in order to table them in the Legislative Assembly by 14 November. Finally, government should table its consolidated financial statements in an annual report, which includes the AG office’s opinion, by 15 December.

 

The audit office told CNS that once the whole annual report was completed in December the new AG, Alastair Swarbrick, will be happy to comment on the situation and how government had met its reporting responsibilities.

 

“Until we issue that report, we are not in a position to discuss the status of the work we are doing with the media, which would effectively pre-empt the communication we have with the members of the Legislative Assembly to whom we report the results of our work,” the AG’s spokesperson said.

 

The issue of government entities failing to make the necessary reporting deadlines in relation to their responsibility to the public has been a huge controversy. Government has not completed a set of annual reports for over six years and many entities remain significantly behind with their reports.

 

Extra help had been drafted in to assist CFOs across government, at further expense to the public purse, to help them meet this year’s deadline while simultaneously addressing their delinquent accounts for previous years.

 

Although the AG has said he will discuss the issue in December, CNS made a formal FOI request to the AG’s office this morning following the office’s refusal to reveal which government bodies had met this year’s deadline and which had not, on the basis that the public has a right to know which government entities are meeting their legal obligations and which are not.

In his original statement the witness had told police that when he saw Samuels at JahT’s he was bleeding, and when he asked if he had been stabbed Samuels replied, “No them man they shoot me, take away me gun.”

 

During the crown’s opening statement on Monday, Cheryl Richards QC, the solicitor general, that  stated this witness had given a statement to police soon after the murder saying that Patrick McField, one of three men accused of killing Omar Samuels on 5 July 2009, had quarrelled with the deceased at Peppers Nightclub on West Bay Road.

 

However, when the witness came to the stand today, Wednesday 1 September, he stated that he could not remember anything that happened that night before he got to JahT’s in McField Square, where he found Samuels injured and tried to help him. He told the court that as he tied up Samuels’ leg he asked who had shot him and Samuels said it was Martin who shot him and took his gun. Manderson said that Samuels had asked him not to say anything to anyone as Samuels did not think he was going to die.

 

As Richards took Manderson through his statement, made only five days after the incident, he continually denied any recollection of the events of the night of 4 July and the early morning of 5 July, including going to Peppers night club, where he had said he had seen Samuels quarrel with McField both inside the club and outside in the parking lot.  

 

Manderson said it was too long ago to remember and he was drunk. He agreed that the signature on the statement appeared to be his but he said he could not remember saying any of it or recall any of it happening.

 

Richards directed him to read the police statement and asked what had happened as she took him through it step by step, but the witness answered “I don’t recall” or “I can’t remember” over and over. 

 

He denied being told to lie or that he had come to court with his own reasons for not telling the truth. Manderson insisted that he was now telling the “whole truth” about what he could remember but it was too long ago to recall what had actually happened or what he had said when he made the statement.

 

Manderson said all he knew was that he could remember seeing Samuels after he had been shot. “When I see him he told me to tie up his leg. Then Omar told me that Martin shot him and take his gun,” the prosecution witness told the court.

 

Asked why he did not tell the police at the time, Manderson said Omar had asked him not to. “I figured he’d probably told the police when he wasn’t dead,” he added. After Samuels died, however, Manderson said he was afraid as he did not know who this Martin was and he was still afraid for his life.

 

Under cross examination from McField’s defence attorney, Trevor Burke QC, the witness agreed the police had come looking for him and that he had not gone to the police himself. He also agreed that they had probably taken the statement from him when he was at his home. Manderson said he knew the police came to find him because other witnesses had reported seeing him with Samuels before he died.

 

Following the problematic crown witness, the solicitor general called two police officers, who confirmed the details of an ID conducted at George Town police station, where the crown’s eyewitness identified the three defendants, Patrick McField, Osbourne Douglas and Brandon Leslie Ebanks.

 

The two officers were followed by RCIPS Scenes of Crime Officer Zoan Marin, who revealed that the crime scene which she had processed was not the porch and yard area of the two storey house at McField Lane, as described by the crown’s eye witness yesterday as the scene of the fight and the subsequent shooting.

 

The officer said the shootingscene was near the laundry room and the alley between two apartments on the other side of the two storey house. She confirmed that she found five shell casings and fragments of what could be bullets in that area near two apartments, but no bullets or casings were found near the porch. She also confirmed that the area was very dark when she first arrived in the early morning hours and that she had required the assistance of the fire department to set up lights to assist her in processing the scene. 

 

The trial of McField, Douglas and Ebanks continues in the grand court tomorrow with more witnesses for the prosecution.

Along with its remit to act as an independent disciplinary body for all senior public figures working in legal services and the judiciary, the JLSC will also have the responsibility for conducting the recruitment process for judges and senior legal roles, and then make recommendations to the governor.

 

In his first press briefing since the creation of the commission, Scott explained that the JLSC, which has been established under the Cayman Islands Constitution 2009, would now be responsible for the recruitment of senior public sector legal personnel, from Grand Court judges to the director of public prosecutions when the officer is created.

 

He said the JLSC represented a new system and the chief justice would no longer be solely responsible for the recruitment of judges and magistrates. Scott stated that during the recruitment process for the current vacancy Chief Justice Anthony Smellie would be expected to offer input, but the recruitment panel itself would consist of members of the JLSC and others who it suggested should be there.

 

“There is no question that the Constitution has provided for significant changes in this area and it adds another layer to the process,” he said, adding that was a positive layer which would enhance the system.

 

Scott said that, as yet, the commission had not turned its attention to dealing with the magistrate vacancy as it had not yet been advised of the circumstance surround the departure of Grace Donalds.

 

Aside from the need to recruit judges and other senior legal staff, the JLSC has a watchdog role Scott said that while the commission would not have anyresponsibility over judge’s legal rulings and decisions, as that would still be the responsibility of the appeal court system, it would be concerned with judge’s behaviour.

 

The JLSC is currently creating a code of conduct based on various international standards, and once completed the code would become a public document. Scott said the public would have access to the commission to complain. The chair stated that the JLSC was working on a website that would provide an open portal for people to see what the commission was doing and how they could raise concerns. Scott said that the code of conduct would be published there and the procedure for complaints would also be explained on the site.

 

The commission and its make up was established under the new Constitution, which requires two non-legal members including the chair, plus the president of the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal and experienced legal experts for other specified positions.  Scott and Dara Flowers-Burke are the non-legal members and Sir John Chadwick is the current president of the CICA. Edward Zacca, Sir David Simmons, Richard Ground, Richard Coles and Charles Jennings are the other members.