Archive for February, 2012
High school opening delayed
(CNS): The opening of Clifton Hunter high school, which was on schedule for Easter, has been postponed again. The education minister told CNS last week that he believed the plan for the students to begin moving in after the Easter holiday could be disrupted as a result of what he described as “shoddy work” at the site that had to be addressed. Rolston Anglin has not yet confirmed the details of what he called an “unexpected delay” but it is understood that the school will now not open until September and the start of the 2012-13 academic year. He denied that the move was political and he stated that the current administration was committed to opening the first of the two high school projects as soon as possible.
The two high school projects have become the biggest, and it appears from the current government’s claims the most expensive, political footballs that Cayman has ever seen and became a point of enormous contention during the 2009 election campaign.
Alden McLaughlin, the opposition leader and former education minister, commissioned the projects as a result of what he had described as a pressing need to address the overcrowding and sub-standard conditions in which the country’s students were being educated. He told CNS that he had been very disappointed to hear recently that the opening of the school would be delayed yet again but not surprised.
McLaughlin said he understood the delay was down to cash. Government now has five school projects on the go and he claimed it was facing serious financial problems in its efforts to complete any of them.
“Government is scrambling to find money to complete the primary school additions, they have abandoned the John Gray project and they don’t have the money to finish Clifton Hunter and have pushed back the opening date to September and even that date is opening to question because of funding issues.”
He acknowledged that the country needed to work on the primary schools but he said it was a question of priorities as the government now was struggling to find the money to complete anything at all.
McLaughlin also questioned the increased figures that government continues to throw out about each of the schools costing $100million.
“The big question is how we got to a $100 million, because the majority of the expenditure has been incurred under this administration and there has been no public accounting of how we got to this figure,” he stated.
The original contract to build the schools was around $110milllion for both buildings $51 million for Clifton Hunter and $59 million for John Gray. After the project started, however, the contractors, Tom Jones International claimed some $17 milllion in overruns before getting into a dispute with government and walking off the job site in November 2009. They later filed suit against the Cayman Islands Government, a case which is continuing through the courts.
McLaughlin, who has faced persistent criticism over the high school projects, stated that despite the financial issues he had been committed to the two high schoolsas a question of equality. The current minister, he said, was now facing the potentially serious and unfair problem of inequality in education.
If and when Clifton Hunter opens, the students from one geographical area of Grand Cayman will have access to a state-of-the-art school, while the other students from George Town and West Bay will be left in the ever deteriorating unacceptable conditions of John Gray.
“A lot of people still beat up on me,” he said about his continuation with the two projects in the face off government’s deteriorating financial fortunes, “but it was about my commitment to equity in education because it is just wrong in principle to have the kids from one area having access to all of these facilities, amenities and opportunities while other kids, just because of where they are from, do not have access. My policy was when we do the high schools they had to be done all at once so all kids had the same opportunities. That is not what is going to happen now.”
Anglin told CNS that he was well aware of the inequity that would arise once Clifton Hunter opened while the John Gray projected remained stalled, but he said that was the way it had to be as the UK would simply not allow government to borrow the money needed to carry-on with both schools. He acknowledged that the students affected would also be those from his constituency and that if it affected his election chances then so be it. The minister said he was not doing his job to win the election but was doing what was right for the country.
The current education minister also denied that his attention on the redevelopment of the primary schools had anything to do with him seeking his own legacy as education minister or that he should have prioritised the secondary school projects over the new primary school sites. Anglin said that the overcrowding and problems in the primary school were a priority and needed to be addressed.
McLaughlin said he appreciated that there were huge demands on the limited amount of money that government had to spend on education but it was a question of priorities. He said he feared that the constant delays at Clifton Hunter were because once people’s children start going to that school a lot of the negativity that he said had attended him would stop as people recognised what he had been trying to achieve.
Cash on offer for ‘good governance’ projects
(CNS): The governor’s office has up to $10,000 to give away to local activists, groups, individuals charities or other organisations that are planning projects which relate to good governance and transparency; respect for human rights; crime reduction and an effective criminal justice system or awareness and protection of the environment. The money comes from an annual grant from the Overseas Territories Programme Fund through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to support what officials described as ‘worthwhile projects” in Cayman. The search is no on to find relevant projects in need of financial support for the period April 2012 – March 2013.
The proposal should have concrete outcomes and the potential to have a lasting impact on the Cayman Islands, the office explained, with the support of a local organisation if the proposal comes from an individual and must take place within the 12 month period specified.
“This is a relatively small fund, but we have used it to good effect in the past and I am keen for this to continue,” Duncan Taylor said Tuesday.
In the past the money from the fund has been used for a diverse range of projects such as an early intervention project for at-risk children, the security scanning chair at the prison, a public information campaign for the Gender Equality Bill, a lionfish study and a survey into the role of Civic Society.
For more information, please visit the website of the Governor’s Office www.ukincayman.fco.gov.uk. To receive a project bidding form please contact Tom Hines at the Governor’s Office: Tom.Hines@fco.gov.uk, tel. 244 2434.
Minimum sentences don’t reduce crime, says report
(CNS): A report conducted by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada into the state of Cayman’s prison system said that there is no evidence minimum sentences reduce crime. Cayman has mandatory minimum sentences for various offences, including a ten year minimum for anyone convicted after trial of possession of an unlicensed firearm. The experts said that local stakeholders had expressed concerns about the impact minimum sentences had on crime prevention and rehabilitation. The report has recommended an immediate review of the current slate of offences with minimum sentences to determine if it is the most effective way to respond to offending.
“It is important that legislation … should not operate to frustrate prevention, diversion and rehabilitation strategy. An appropriate legislative structure should complement, support, and reinforce a successful prevention, diversion and rehabilitation framework,” the authors stated.
They also point out that the United States is reviewing mandatory minimum sentences and crime reduction strategies as a result of the increased costs of incarceration and lack of evidence that they reduce crime.
“What mandatory minimum sentences can do is put an offender into an environment where the offender may form relationships and learn behaviours and attitudes which would lead them into further criminal activity,” the IPAC team warns.
The assessment, which is a comprehensive review of the entire prison system, highlights a number of areas where government should review other existing legislation in order to address the problems faced by the system. Cayman has one of the highest per capita inmate populations in the world as well as very high recidivism rates and the costs of housing people behind bars is become an increasing burden on the public purse as it now accounts for more than 4% of government’s entire spending.
The report says Cayman needs to make a number of major changes that will need legislative support, from the implementation of the children’s law to provide greater protection to young offenders to a review of the Alternative Sentencing Law, the Probation of Offenders Law, the Penal Code and the Misuse of Drugs Law. It notes the need to facilitate sentences that combine custody with probation.
“Legislation must provide police with the discretion to divert youth offenders and low risk adult offenders to appropriate programs in the community,” the report recommends as a way of reducing the prison population and keeping young people out of the system.
The IPAC team said that the current limits on community service are a barrier to its successful use, which could see victims benefiting from the work of offenders. “In some jurisdictions the offender performs community service for the victim, providing immediate reparation to the victim,” the authors stated. “This approach also connects the offender with the victim providing a first-hand awareness of the consequence of the criminal behaviour, and provides visible evidence of community restoration.”
The authors said that the Prevention of Crime Group Report made a recommendation in 2010 to broaden community service for minor and first time offenders but no statutory changes have taken place.
The authors also recommended establishing a separate court for young offenders. “Scheduling youth matters at a separate time from adult matters wouldenable youth appearing in court whether in custody or not to be kept separate from adult offenders,” the authors said, adding it would enable young people to be transported separately between court and jail from adult offenders.
Among the many issues noted by the authors in the comprehensive report were concerns about a lack of transparency related to the operation of the prison. The authors said this is fuelling beliefs that mistreatment of offenders is not addressed and staff are not held accountable for inappropriate behaviour.
“A number of stakeholders provided examples of concern around excessive use of force, inappropriate use of strip searches, arbitrary decision making, administration of medicine to mentally ill inmates, and an ineffective complaint process,” the authors found.
“This is contributing to a lack of confidence in the management of the prison. Although we are not able to speak to the accuracy of the concerns, the fact that these concerns are voiced by a variety of stakeholders means that at the very least action needs to be taken to increase public confidence in the administration of the facility.”
The report reveals that the Prison Inspection Board, which is supposed to increase public confidence via its reports, is expected to provide up to two days’ notice of an inspection and members are taken around the prison by prison officers. This means the inspection is not made under normal operating conditions but how the prison wants the board to think it operates.
The IPAC team recommended removing the need for prior notice and accompanying prison officers during inspections — except on the high security block – to increase public confidence in the facility.
“A well-managed prison should have no concern over the receipt of prisoner complaints -‐they are part of the institutional setting,” the authors wrote. “There will undoubtedly be prisoner complaints that verge upon the vexatious or are devoid of substance. At the same time there will be complaints of substance that will identify prison officers and prisoners.”
The fact that prisoner complaints are required to be provided in an open fashion to officers who in turn forward the complaint to the appropriate person or body means prisoners have no faith in the integrity of the inspection process or the complaints procedure.
“Any complaint procedure must provide prisoners the comfort of knowing that the process is fair, balanced, unaffected by the prison officer‐prisoner paradigm, and will operate without fear of reprisal within the prison,” the report stated. “From what was described to us about the Complaints procedure, it fails on all counts.”
See full report by the IPAC below.
Hundreds killed in prison fire in Honduras
(BBC): A massive fire has swept through a jail in Honduras, killing at least 272 prisoners, officials say. Many of the victims were burned or suffocated to death in their cells at the jail in Comayagua, in central Honduras.Families flocked to the site, desperate for news. Some prisoners escaped the blaze by breaking through the roof to jump from the building, they said. Officials are investigating whether an electrical fault caused the blaze. The fire broke out late on Tuesday night and took more than an hour to be brought under control. Dozens of prisoners died trapped in their cells and were burned beyond recognition.
Comayagua firefighters' spokesman Josue Garcia said there were "hellish" scenes at the prison and that desperate inmates had rioted in a bid to escape the flames. "We couldn't get them out because we didn't have the keys and couldn't find the guards who had them," he said.
Lucy Marder, who heads the forensic services in Comayagua, said that reports indicated at least 272 people had been killed. The prison was holding more than 800 inmates. She later said that 356 people on the prison roster were unaccounted for. "The majority could be dead, though others could have suffered burns, escaped or survived," Marder said.
Cayman Spirit
Shortly after Dart Group arrived in Cayman and began buying large parcels of land in the mid 1990’s, such as where Camana Bay is located, it was widely believed that they wanted to dredge a channel in the North Sound in order to allow large yachts to access this property. In fact, it was also believed they had a plan to cut a canal through the Barkers area and dredge along the west coast of the North Sound.
Many Caymanians were against any such plan and there was a public outcry against such a move. This outcry became so strong that eventually McKeeva and his fellow elected members from West Bay decided to hold a public meeting at the West Bay town hall to discuss this topic.
Initially, McKeeva and his fellow representatives denied any approval had been granted for dredging in the North Sound. This position continued until a member of the audience produced a copy of a signed approval which did indeed give permission for the dredging of a channel in the North Sound.
From this meeting, and the general opposition to such a plan, McKeeva and the government of the day must have realized that Caymanians were not going to accept this decision and would take all steps to prevent it from moving forward. The government backed off the proposal and nothing was heard about it again.
Now McKeeva is in government again and we find he has an agreement with Dart to close a portion of the West Bay Road. This gives absolutely no benefit to Caymanians (who through the Crown, own the land) and only gives a great benefit to Dart by increasing the value of any project they may develop there. Some say if this is done they will proceed to develop a project in this area. Are they saying that if the Dart Group does not receive the approval to close this section of the road that they will do nothing with the property? This is highly unlikely, and if it were so, it would only demonstrate a fear many Caymanians have, namely that Dart is putting itself in a position where we as a country will no longer be able to make decisions with the best interest of all Caymanians in mind if this contradicts what Dart wishes to do.
Many are saying the economy is poor at present and we should agree to this closure in order to create jobs. If we are worried that by not agreeing we will risk Dart stopping all development, imagine the position we will be in when we have granted all they want now and the group has gained even more control over our national economy. The more we give up in the name of creating a few jobs now, the more difficult it will be in the future to oppose other grandiose schemes such as dredging a channel in the North Sound. The Dart Group seems to think we will be fooled when they trot out a Deloitte report supporting their point of view. Surely most of us realize these reports do not represent the best interests of the Caymanian people as that is not who commissioned the study.
It is easy to understand why many are concerned about opposing Dart as it has a well documented history of ruthlessly pursuing its goals even in the face of opposition from large countries, even the US. How could a small country like ourselves stand against a Dart proposal if we felt it was wrong for our country? This only emphasizes why we must stand firm against the proposed closure of a section of the West Bay road now. If it is a risk for us tooppose Dart on this issue it will be impossible to oppose any future proposals it may put forward.
We can all agree that if Dart puts forward a proposal that Caymanians feel is beneficial to our Island we will be happy to support it. However we must be able to oppose a proposal that we feel is detrimental to Caymanians and our country. Caymanians have a proud history of standing against all odds when they believe something is not in the best interests of our country.
This happened recently when Mr Imparato was proposing a dock in East End. A majority of Caymanians were against this proposal and spoke out. Our government of the day did not seem to be listening but Caymanians made their concerns known and ultimately Mr Imparato changed his plans. All credit goes to Mr Imparato for ultimately heeding the wishes of Caymanians even though he must have invested considerable time and funds in the planning of the project. This may have something to do with the fact Mr Imparato actually spends considerable time here in Cayman and does interact with Caymanian society. There are many examples in our history where Caymanians have stood for what they believed under great pressure and in hindsight the decisions have proven to be very sound.
Of major concern this time is whether we still have the backbone and numbers needed to stand for what we believe. Over recent years, particularly in McKeeva administrations, the ratio of Caymanians raised here to Caymanians granted status has been changing significantly. Between the status grants and permanent residencies granted (a great Freedom of Information question would be ‘How many permanent residencies have been granted since May 2009?’) we may be losing our control over what happens in our Island.
This only makes it more important to oppose the closure of a section of the West bay Road now, as it detracts from and provides no benefits to Caymanians. There are many other issues we need to stand firm against which are being proposed by this government. These will be the topic of future viewpoints. We need to be prepared to stand firm against anything we think is detrimental to our country even if our government of the day is not standing with us.
McLean demands $81m audit
(CNS): The district representative for East End has challenged the government to show the audited financial figures for the year ending June 2009 to demonstrate how the $81 million deficit emerged. Arden McLean said he still questions the claim by the premier that the previous government, of which he was a part, had left a deficit of $81 million.The PPM former Cabinet minister says he has evidence that on the eve of the election the financial secretary had told the Cabinet that the deficit was running at around$18 million at the end of the third quarter. McLean said he would produce the note even if he went to jail, as he called on the current government to prove the claims it was making against the PPM.
“I have in my possession a Cabinet note by the financial secretary … brought to Cabinet on 5 May 2009,” McLean told a public meeting in the district on Monday evening. He added that he was going to soon put a stop to the talk about the $81 million. McLean stated that the financial note to the then PPM cabinet stated that as of 31 March 2009 the country had a deficit of $18 million.
“The election was held 15 days later on 20 May,” he said. “On 25th day of May, five days after the election, McKeeva (Bush) announced … that we were $81 million in deficit … In fifteen days you couldn’t burn $52 million.”
The East End member said that whatever political damage the premier could have done to him had already been done as he called for the auditor figures. “Give it to me in black and white. He cannot bring it!” he exclaimed.
McLean pointed to the unlikely reality of the deficit and said it was unbelievable that in its first year in office the government was able to clear the deficit and bring a surplus of $5 million. He said if this had actually happened then he applauded the premier but he wanted to see the figures.
“He has to show it to me, put it in black and white so the people can see that Arden squandered $81 million. He already says so he might as well put that in writing,” the MLA told the people gathered in the heart of his district for the meeting.
McLean said it was clear government did not want the audited figures for that year to be released. He pointed to government’s attempt to include the 2008/09 financial year as one of the years to be excluded from proper audit when the Public Management and Finance Law was amended to allow government accountants to catch up on the mounting backlog of government accounts.
“We stopped them but it’s still languishing out there … so he can continue to tell people that we ran up the $81 million,” he said, as he asked the press if they wanted a copy of the note. He said he had had enough of being blamed when no one could show the proof.
“I know I’ll go to jail because it’s coming out of Cabinet,” he added as he spoke about the documentation that he believes would exonerate him and his previous Cabinet colleagues of blame for the now infamous government deficit.
Courtroom battle not quickest route to records
(CNS): Updated with Port Authority statement — In order to avoid a long legal battle in the local courts the information commissioner has withdrawn her recent letter to the chief justice certifying the non-compliance of the Port Authority in connection with her latest ruling. After taking legal advice about the documents, which the port authority is reluctant to release to new applicants without going through the process, Jennifer Dilbert said it will be quicker for CNS and other applicants to pursue a normal application process to get the information rather than fighting a protracted courtroom battle.
“Determining whether the records should be released by this route would probably involve a long legal battle,” Dilbert’s office stated on Monday. Although she had sought to enforce her December decision that the documents be released, making the records public, actually getting them into the public domain via the courts may not be the best route.
“It is my view that as the new applicants have the opportunity to seek these records by going through the normal procedure as set out in the FOI Law, this would be the most effective way to proceed, if they so desire. I am pleased however that the application of the FOI Law continues to meet the tests put forward in each case.”
Dilbert had originally sought to test whether the decision to the original applicant could also apply to subsequent requests. However, having sought legal advice herself it became apparent that the court process was likely to take much longer than having the Port Authority go through a repeat of the normal process with the new applications.
I response to the news that Dilbert had reconsider the court action the Port Authority issued a statement on Tuesday morning denying any breach of the law.
"The Port Authority continues to believe that the complaint should never have been made. There was no legal or factual basis for the ICO to suggest that the Port Authority breached the Freedom of Information Law," it stated. "The Port Authority recognises that its obligations under the Freedom of Information Law are coupled with the requirements of due process, for the benefit of both the public and the authority. The Port Authority will continue to comply with the Freedom of Information Law going forward."
Ironically, CNS made a request for the records on 29 January and as yet has not received an acknowledgemnt letter which, according to the law, should have been sent within ten days.
CNS will continue to pursue the records application made by the original applicant in the hope that given the commissioner’s existing ruling the documents will be released by 1 March.
The documents in question relate to the negotiations between the port, government and GLF Construction, the second developers who were in line to construct the cruise berthing facilities in George Town but with which the premier terminated talks on the eve of a planned main agreement.
After her 13 December ruling when Dilbert said the documents should be released, the port did not comply with the order within the 45 days given after an ICO hearing nor did the authority request a judicial review of her decision. Although Dilbert was by then already in a position to certify the public authority for its failure to comply, given the decision of the original applicant to withdraw the request, the information commissioner did not force the issue.
However, CNS made a request for the same documents which the commissioner asked the port to immediately release as a result of her existing decision. The Port Authority sought to challenge that on the basis that the application was a new request. Although the information commissioner’s position will be the same, the new application will present an opportunity for the port to attempt to delay the inevitable by a further few weeks and probably see the authority seek some new exemption under the law to keep the documents under wraps, even though many of them are already in the public domain.
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Young men given chance to jump barriers to jobs
(CNS): A group of young men in their twenties struggling to find, and importantly stay in a job, began the government’s first work placement programme Monday, designed specifically for their demographic. The passport2success programme for adult males has been adapted to suit their needs and organisers hope it will prove as successful as the pervious programmes that were designed for school and college leavers who had never worked. Most of the young men who started the programme this week may have worked before but because of particular challenges including criminal records or dismissals from previous jobs they are now finding it hard to get work and keep it. (Photo Jasmin Jackson)
Organisers say that the course will focus on the barriers that these young men face, some of whom are already parents, and help them get back into the workplace and stay there.
The programme is a collaboration between the education and employment ministry, the Wellness Centre as well as local employers and the ICCI college where the students undertaken the theoretical side of their training.
Although the passport2success programme addresses academic shortcomings such as numeracy and literacy as well as work necessary skill sets, the focus of the public-private programme is primarily about the other issues standing in the way of the men finding and then being able to keep a job. Organisers said attitudes, work ethic, issues of entitlement and in some case aggression or having a criminal record has stood in the way of the men securing employment or has caused them to lose a job they had managed to get.
The chief officer in the minister responsible for the programme welcomed the new group on the course Monday and spoke about the problem of entitlement which is standing in the way of young Caymanians competing effectively in the jobs market. Mary Rodrigues said that in all of the passport2success programmes issues of entitlement have proved to be a major stumbling block as she warned that there was no entitlement in the modern competitive workplace. She also pointed to pride standing in the way of people asking for help to get work.
With a success rate of between 60-70% and employers now seeking out people who have undertaken the five month course, she said that it would help the young men. “You will find this programme very different from other experiences you may have had in high school,” she said. “This will help you to address all of the issues that are holding you back.”
Rodrigues said the programme would help the young men become the type of person that an employer wanted to employ but that they would be challenged by the course and they would need to commit. However, she said the students would receive support throughout and after they completed the course their tutors would still be following their progress and work with them to help them get work.
“You earn your right to stay in this programme so if you start flouting the rules…or stick with the programme and what it requires or if you don’t apply yourselves you will be asked to leave,” she told the young men. “For many of you this is a second chance, it’s a new opportunity for success but it depends on you. We can create the opportunities but you have to take advantage.”
So far four groups of school leavers and a group of unemployed single mums have been through the government-private-sector work readiness course and the organisers say more than 60% of those students have found work or are in full time education as a result of the programme.
DHL Cayman Storm stumble
(CNS): The 2011/12 Alex Alexander Memorial Trophy is once again looking set to come to an exciting conclusion in a replay of last year’s decider between the John Doak Architecture Iguanas and the DHL Storm albeit this time round the current title holders, the Iguanas have no chance of taking home the title. In last year’s league decider the DHL Storm needed a win against the Iguanas to take home the league trophy for the first time since 2008, anything less would hand the Iguanas their 2nd consecutive league title. The game ended in a 14-14 draw and the Storm ended the season in 3rd place. Photos Caroline Deegan
Although the John Doak Architecture Iguanas have no shot at retaining the title for an unprecedented 3rd year (having lost once already to the DHL Storm and twice to the Krys Global Buccaneers) the Iguanas will be cheered on by the Buccaneers who know that if the Iguanas can beat the Storm and deny the Storm any bonus points then it will be the Buccaneers who will be crowned league Champions.
The Buccaneers are certainly the in-form team at present having handed the DHL Storm their first loss of the season on Saturday 11 February with a 24 point hammering. A loss in stark contrast to the 48-5 drubbing the Storm handed the Buccaneers in the first half of the season.
The Iguanas, coming from a 32-20 win over the Queensgate Pigs Trotters will be looking to overcome their upset to the Storm in the early part of the season when they were denied a late comeback win but it’ll be anyone’s guess as to what will happen on the day.
The still winless Queensgate Pigs Trotters are going to have a steep hill to climb in their final league game of the season if they want to earn their first win of the season as the Buccaneers will be taking no prisoners on 18 February. In the event that the DHL Storm lose to the Iguanas but earn a bonus point the league will be decided on points difference and it is the DHL Storm, with their prolific back line who have the lead in that department so the Buccaneers will be looking to pile on the points against the Pigs Trotters!
Next games 18 February 2012 at the Cayman Islands Rugby Club:
2pm Krys Global Buccaneers vs. Queensgate Pigs Trotters
4pm John Doak Architecture Iguanas vs. DHL Cayman Storm
New scholarship nurtures top high school students
(CNS Business): A new scholarship programme, sponsored by the Dart Group, is geared at students entering grade nine (Year 10) in September of this year and offers a four-year high school scholarship based on academic excellence with a focus on mathematics and science. An enrichment component of the the Minds Inspired programme seeks to broaden knowledge by providing access and opportunity to math and science learning and events outside of the classroom environment, which may include overseas field trips, academic competitions and events that promote learning experiences. The programme will also establish a college fund in addition to the high school scholarship. Read more on CNS Business