Archive for January, 2011
Order for new MLAs overdue
(CNS): The Cayman Islands governorhas said that he expects the order regarding the findings of the Electoral Boundary Commission to come to the Legislative Assembly soon but no date has been set. Although the commission completed its report and submitted its recommendations to the Legislative Assembly almost seven months ago, members have not yet debated the thorny issue of how the country’s parliament will be increased to 18 members, as laid out in the 2009 Constitution. The issue is beginning to raise concerns among members of the LA as there is an expectation that the country’s political landscape will undergo considerable change but as yet no one knows if the government will follow the recommendations of the commission.
Duncan Taylor told CNS on Friday that he was anticipating that the order regarding the way forward for the increase in the number of MLAs for the next election would come to the Legislative Assembly “in the very near future”.
There has, however, been no date set for the order based on the report to come to the Legislative Assembly and Deputy Governor Donovan Ebanks revealed last week that he did not know when the order would come as he answered questions about preparations for the full implementation of the country’s constitution and the bill of rights.
Ezzard Miller pointed out that the order based on the boundary commission’s report was overdue and the clock was ticking towards the next election. The commission, which completed its work in June of last year, recommended that the government introduce a seventh electoral district.
Falling short of directly recommending single member constituencies, the commission said it had found considerable support on Grand Cayman during its public consultation period for one member-one vote. Although there is some support from some MLAs, including Ezzard Miller and some members of the opposition, it is understood that government is opposed to one member-one vote.
Explaining the reasoning behind the seventh district, the commission said that with the growing population in the George Town area, voters would be given a powerful political advantage if the country maintained the six districts and merely added seats. It said the creation of a seventh electoral district for Grand Cayman on the edge of the capital, called Prospect-Spotts, could accommodate the three new members as required by the Cayman Islands Constitution 2009.
If the government chose not to introduce the new constituency, the commission said, the population numbers would dictate that two seats would have to go to George Town and the third to Bodden Town.
The commissioners found that all the evidence pointed to the Prospect and Savannah area as the fastest growing and the most logical place to create a new electoral district, which would create a better balance of power. The new district recommended by the commission would include voters from east of the current capital and west of the country’s historical capital, creating a fair distribution of voters.
The commission outlined how government could choose the more controversial option of one member-one vote constituencies, which would mean dividing all three islands into 18 new electoral districts.
George Town and West Bay would then be divided into four separate constituencies, the new Prospect-Spotts district and Bodden Town would both be broken into three, while North Side and East End would remain as individual single-member constituencies.
Meanwhile, the Sister Islands would be separated into two districts incorporating Cayman Brac West and Little Cayman and Cayman Brac East, a move to which voters in the Sister Islands have said they are fundamentally opposed.
Whatever the decision, the balance in voter numbers in the Sister Islands remains. As the commission pointed out, with two constituencies or two members on the Brac and Little Cayman, the voting numbers per constituency are far smaller there than in any district in Grand Cayman.
Vote in the CNS poll: How should the electoral boundaries be reformed?
Bailed kidnapper disappears
(CNS): One of four men accused of taking part in what was believed to be Cayman’s first kidnapping for ransom has disappeared. Richard Hurlstone (32), a Honduran national with Caymanian status who had been released on bail, did not appear in court last Friday morning as he is believed to have absconded. Hurlstone is due to face trial with Charles Webster and Allen Kelly next month in connection with the incident which took place in March last year. The men are accused of abducting a young man and demanding a ransom of half a million dollars. The victim was allegedly dishonestly enticed to an address in North Side, where he was held against his will before he managed to escape. A fourth man, Wespie Mullings-Ramon, has already pleaded guilty to charges relating to the crime.
Although Hurlstone was given a curfew and made to surrender his passport, he has not reported to police since early December. It is understood that Hulrstone’s home has been locked up and his personal possessions have been sold on a local classified website.
Justice Harrison has issued a warrant for Hurlstone’s arrest but has said that the trial, which is expected to last two weeks, will still go ahead on 21 February, despite Hurlstone’s absence.
U17 football squad seeks help to get to Vegas cup
(CNS): Cayman’s national football squad is looking for help from the community to send its U17 boys in Las Vegas for the Mayors Cup International Showcase next month. An international competition with some 200 clubs taking part the Las Vegas Mayor’s Cup is a highly competitive tournament heavily scouted by American colleges and universities who are looking for talented young players. The matches will be played on world-class fields constructed exclusively for soccer by the City of Las Vegas. Antwan Seymour the team’s Scholastic Coordinator said the competition could be a dream come true for some of Cayman’s young talented players but first they have to get there.
“Each player’s estimated expenses are US$1490.00, inclusive of airfare, accommodation, transportation, uniform and meals,” said Seymour adding that eh hoped some people from the community would join the parents of the selected youngsters to defray some of the costs.
Hoping to get sponsorship for each player he said smaller donations would also be greatly received.
“Every little bit helps. As we recognize the tight economic times, any contribution towards defraying these costs will be appreciated. “The contributions will assist 18 talented young men a chance to use their football skills to earn a scholarship with one of the numerous college and university coaches at this tournament.”
The team is currently undergoing intensive training on Fridays 4pm at the Annex football team, under Coaches Antwan Seymour and Dion Brandon, assisted by Coach Gillie Seymour.
The team hoping to make it to Vegas and an opportunity to earn a scholarship in the US is:
Matthew Suberan
Matthew Forest
Santangelo Bush
Tiger Wilson Jr
Aaron Martin
Jamaal Ebanks
Colby Seymour
Naoki Montoya
Tevin Yen
Martin Webb
Wesley Robinson
Moses Ebanks
Richard Clarke
Jamaal Seymour
For more information and confirmation of Cayman Select U17 team registration please visit www. lvmayorscup.com
Top cop to face grilling from business community
(CNS): At a time when many in the business community feel that Cayman’s most pressing problem is the rise in violent crime and in particular armed robberies and burglaries of local businesses the police commissioner will be the Chamber of Commerce’s presenter at the next be informed series. David Baines will be taking questions from the audience against a back drop of rising crime that is targeting the commercial sector. Well aware of the concerns of members the chamber said it had invited the islands’ most senior police officer to talk about the crime reduction strategies in place as well as any progress on recent crimes that the RCIPS have made.
With five armed robberies taking place in the first two weeks of the New Year at local business Baines can expect a grilling from the audience.
“Escalating crime has become a reality that we must all face, but that does not mean we have to accept it,” said the Chamber President James O’Neill. “It is deeply concerning to the Chamber that so many of our small businesses are being targeted in this way, in what are already trying times for most. We are a small community; it is within our means and ability to rid ourselves of these types of crimes if we pull together. “
The new chamber boss said that people had to stand firm to protect the country and the community had to support the police.
“The RCIPS must be held accountable but they can only do so much,” he stated. “Without the support of the community it is a much harder proposition to apprehend these criminals. The Chamber continues to encourage our members and the wider community to come forward as witnesses or use the anonymous tip line from CrimeStoppers,” he added as he encouraged members to come along.
This BE INFORMED presentation will be held at the Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Centre at Governors Square next Wednesday, at 3pm. Following the same format as previous BE INFORMED presentations the Commissioner will make his remarks and then the floor will be opened for questions allowing Chamber members to get answers from both the commissioner and other RCIPS staff.
Already a popular series this particular presentation series this is expected to attract a full house and the chamber is asking members to register early to reserve a seat at www.caymanchamber.ky
Cops bombarded by requests from single applicant
(CNS): The forty FOI requests that were refused by the RCIPS on the grounds that they were vexatious came from the same applicant, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has revealed in a mediation summary. Over a ten-month period, between December 2009 and September 2010, the police received 46 separate requests from the same applicant, asking 78 questions, including how much water the RCIPs had used. On several occasions, the applicant submitted up to 20 requests in one day, one after the other, bombarding the police with questions. The information commissioner said it was the first time that an applicant seems to have abused the Freedom of Information system.
The police had responded to the requests in the unusual manner, acknowledging receipt, but after receiving 35 questions from the same applicant over the span of ten days, the ICO said the RCIPS made a decision to use the provision in the law that excuses a public authority from complying with a request where that request is vexatious, repetitive or unreasonable.
The applicant had sent their first request to the RCIPS on 21 December 2009, which consisted of three questions. They then sent another request on the 22 December with 12 questions. Taking a break over Christmas, the requester then sent another request on 3 January 2010 with 20 questions. This was followed by four separate requests on 18 January and 7 requests on 2 February. There followed a gap of several months before the same requester sent twelve more requests in August on three separate occasions before finally sending 20 requests on 24 September.
According to the police information manager, the nature of the questions varied. On one occasion the requester asked how many exposures/pictures RCIPS scenes of crime officers had taken at crime scenes over a given time period and another asked how many gallons of water the police had consumed on each of the three islands over the last five years.
“This was a very unique situation in that it is the first instance in Cayman where it seems that an applicant may have been abusing the FOI system,” said Jennifer Dilbert Information Commissioner. “While the term vexatious is not specifically defined in the legislation, we can draw on the experiences of other jurisdictions to help determine what is unacceptable.”
Dilbert explained that public authorities have been cautious about using the vexatious exception found under section 9 of the law, and although the ICO’s 2010 Bi-Annual Report states that the vexatious exception was applied 41 times, 40 of the requests were from this same applicant.
The commissioner pointed out that the applicant in question had appealed the RCIPS decision but has since abandoned the matter. The failure of the applicant to contact the office and follow through with the appeal strengthened the RCIPS position that the reasoning behind the requests was to waste time.
The ICO has made it clear that a request should not be considered vexatious just because of the number of questions that an applicant may ask or because the requests are relatively frequent but it would have to be a combination of factors before information managers can use this part of the law to make a refusal.
"There are many instances when numerous requests are made by a single applicant and they are not deemed vexatious,"the office explained, adding that the when the law is applied it is to the request and not specifically a requestor. "Just because someone is annoying or rude that does not necessarily mean the request is vexatious."
The ICO said the threshold is very high for applying this exception and the Information Manager training covers the topic of vexatious requests.
Elmer’s discs are old news, says Travers
(CNS): The information contained on the two discs given to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks by Rudolph Elmer from his time working with Julius Bear’s Cayman Islands subsidiary is nothing new, according to Anthony Travers, the chair of Cayman Finance. The leaked information is said to contain the names of more than 2,000 people with accounts in the Cayman Islands, but Travers says the US government won’t be gaining any new access to information because of what he described as the “long and established record of banking transparency and a willingness to share information” here in Cayman.
“This information is of historic interest only,” Travers stated in a release. He added that Cayman shares information with the United States and 20 other jurisdictions with which it has tax information exchange agreements, as well as all 27 members of the European Union. “Release of the names of persons who maintain accounts in the Cayman Islands – much like other threats from Julian Assange to post information on WikiLeaks – sounds sensational but is yesterday’s news,” said Travers, who chairs the local finance industry body .
The Cayman authorities entered into a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with the US Department of Justice to enable information-sharing on all crimes and money laundering more than two decades ago. In 2001 the islands signed a bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with the United States that provides for exchange of information relating to federal income tax. Since then, it has established similar agreements with 20 other countries.
In 2002 Cayman became one of the first non-OECD jurisdictions to adopt the principles of transparency and exchange of information, requiring local banks, law firms and financial institutions to exercise complete due diligence on all clients. This was in addition to the duty of those institutions to identify suspicious clients and the mandate that every professional confidentially report all suspicious transactions to the government’s Financial Reporting Unit (FRU).
Cayman Finance said that together this led to Cayman being placed on the OECD’s “white list” of jurisdictions when it comes to transparency and regulations.
Elmer handed the discs to WikiLeaks founder on Monday in London and Assange has said that he will disclose the content once the discs have been scrutinized. At the press conference at the Front Line Club he indicated that the time it would take to vet the material would depend on the volume of information and how it was delegated. The Tax Justice Network is one of the groups that might be asked to help in the vetting process, he added.
John Christensen, former economic adviser to Jersey and now director of the Tax Justice Network, on e of the groups TRavers has called the ‘Tax Taliban’ told the BBC that Elmer had felt he had no alternative but to go to WikiLeaks as he had been "raising concerns … for many years.”
Christensen said that Elmer is not the only person who has worked in a compliance role in an offshore bank who has raised concerns with superiors about what is going oninside the banks, only to be ignored. He said the banks need to start taking warnings by compliance staff more seriously when they raise these issues.
Former landfill to become solar panel site
(Waste & Recycling News): A former landfill in Springfield, Mass, will become home to about 17,000 solar panels that will produce up to 4.2 megawatts of solar energy. Western Massachusetts Electric Co. will develop the project at a capped landfill on Cottage Street, the company said. The $22 million project is expected to contribute "several hundred thousand dollars" of annual property tax to the city, the electric company said. "Our use of a capped landfill creates a new and viable use for an otherwise challenged property within our home city," said Peter J. Clarke, president and chief operating officer at WME Co.
Barclays banks faces huge fines for poor advice
(Bloomberg): The UK’s third-biggest bank may have to pay motr than $106 million in fines and compensation for failing to disclose the risk in two funds it sold to thousands of retirees. The bank was fined 7.7 million pounds and may need to return as much as 59 million pounds to customers who received bad investment advice, the Financial Services Authority said Tuesday. The fine is the biggest imposed by the London-based regulator for retail deficiencies. Barclays failed to ensure that Aviva’s Global Balanced Income Fund and Global Cautious Income Fund were suitable for customers and didn’t properly train sales employees from July 2006 through November 2008, the FSA said.
The fine comes a week after Barclays Chief Executive Officer Robert Diamond told Parliament “the period of remorse and apology” for the credit crisis needs to end so banks can rebuild confidence.
Healthy eating project to continue in school
(CNS): With almost half the children in year seven with weight problems the Children’s Health Task Force (CHTF) is continuing its Health4Youth Programme at the John Gray and Clifton Hunter schools this year. Although organisers say there have been challenges the team is continuing to educate young people to make healthier eating choices even if the students are not happy about it. The goal of the programme is to create holistic approach towards fighting childhood obesity by working with a pilot group of students in the 2009-2010 year seven class at John Gray which is now in its second year. Officials hope the project will be a step towards reversing worrying indicators that today’s children are already at risk of serious, future health problems.
Offering his backing to the pilot project the education minister has said that poor nutrition during childhood can have lasting effects, impairing cognitive development and performance. “This is our opportunity to make a measurable difference in student health and well-being. Research consistently shows that children who eat healthier meals perform better academically and are absent from classes less often," Rolston Anglin stated.
However, CNS understands that many of the children are finding it difficult to adapt to the new menus in the schools which offer healthier foods. The ban on fast food on campus has not necessarily prevented older children from continuing to go to fast food restaurants at lunch time instead of the school canteen. A number of restaurants in the George Town area have also reported a significant increase in lunch time custom from students who say they no longer want to eat in school.
However, Maureen Cubbon, PR & Fund Raising Coordinator says the team is pressing on and working with the school canteens, Mise En Place, teachers, parents and students with the implementation of the Standards for Food Provisions (CISFP). Her colleague Sue Rajah said, "It’s important for people to understand that the changes have come out of necessity with the health and wellness of the youth of Cayman as the focus. It was collaborative effort between the Children’s Health Task Force and the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education.”
Officials said that 175 children out of approximately 400 were indentified in the Year 7 class in the 85% and 95% percentile of Body Mass Index (BMI). 146 students were actively engaged in the programme through the school year, which included nutritional counselling, medical support and an afterschool exercise programme. After 2 years of collecting data and reporting back on the results of the program, the third year will focus on working with the Government and schools to support a change in mind set in the Cayman Islands about health and wellness, especially pertaining to the school environment.
The plans for the coming months include psychological assessments, continued nutrition sessions for the children in the program, and supporting the existing curriculum in the schools that focus around health. An extensive in school education campaign will commence in the coming months to help educate the students and teachers about the new foods served in the canteen. Medical assessments and measurements will continue also through the rest of the year.
Dr. Sook Yin, Medical Director for the Task Force, said that in the first year the task force and local pediatricians had worked very hard to obtain parameters like BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol level, glucose level andinsulin levels from the group which are predictors of chronic diseases.
“The results were startling to us as we have identified children as young as 12 years old here in the Cayman Islands who are showing signs of developing diabetes and hypertension, two major chronic diseases that in the past were perceived as "old people diseases". The community must come together to support the National Food Policy for school canteens that has been implemented to serve healthier and more nutritious meals to school children or we will have a generation of young adults in a decades’ time who will be a burden to our healthcare system," the doctor warned.
The Health4Youth Programme was originally created by a variety of organizations in the Cayman Islands that are commitment to the general well being of the Cayman community. The core committee is made of members forthe Cayman Heart Fund, Generali Worldwide, TrinCay Medical and the Cayman Islands Health Services Authority.
New UK bribery law threatens City hospitality
(FT.com): Businesses are reviewing their corporate hospitality plans amid concerns that lavish entertaining could fall foul of contentious new bribery legislation. Lawyers say they have been approached by companies who fear that they may have to cancel hospitality events after the Bribery Act comes into force in April. Many City institutions regard luxury entertaining, which can include international flights and free tickets to sporting events, as a normal part of business. But lawyers warn that the legislation aiming to end corrupt payments makes no exceptions for hospitality, unlike in the US.
Stephen Morrall, corporate partner at Dawsons Solicitors, said: “We have talked to a lot of people about this. They are very concerned and they should be concerned. People are asking whether they should be holding [corporate entertainment events].”