Portfolio takes full 45 days to comply with info boss

| 10/09/2012

file cabinet.JPG(CNS): The information commissioner expressed her disappointment on Monday that the Portfolio of the Civil Service and the Office of the Deputy Governor waited until the last minutes to hand over documents that she had ordered be released in connection with the recent recruitment of three senior civil servants. She confirmed that the public authority had finally complied with an order she made in her 21st decision handed down in July. Just ahead of Right to Know Week later this month, Jennifer Dilbert pointed out that the portfolio had waited the full 45 days to release the records.

The documents relateto an FOI request made by an applicant regarding the appointment of three chief officers made this January. During the hearing Dilbert upheld the decision of the portfolio to redact some information but overturned the decision to withhold the resumes and qualifications for the successful candidates. She also overturned the decision to redact some information contained in the unfinished unsigned panel report provided to the applicant and ordered the disclosure of an unredacted copy, as well as other relevant records that she had identified and ordered their disclosure.

The commissioner had also revealed that the portfolio and the deputy governor’s office were in contravention of the Freedom of Information Law with respect to the record keeping for the recruitment exercise for chief officers conducted in January 2012.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Wait til we get the Bill of Rights, the you will see more and more challenges to the flawed decision making that exists throughout the Ministries.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Well, well, so we had a transparent objective recruitment exercise did'nt we?

    This is a serious loss of credibility so far.

    The longer things go on, the more they are the same.

    Dats my 2Bits.

    • Anonymous says:

      "Well, well so we had an objective transparent recruitment exercise did'nt (sic) we?" Well, actually yes, Tues 15:18, that's exactly what Mr Manderson tried to do and has been dumped on from on high for apparently falling afoul of the FOI Commissioner.. Perhaps he should just say "eff it" and return to the "good old days" before the Public Service Management Law when Permanent Secretaries, now called Chief Officers, were appointed SOLELY by the Governor "acting in his own discretion". No advertising of the post, no applications accepted, no interviews, no psychometric testing (maybe no bad thing!) and certainly NO right to question the decision made by the Governor "acting in his own discretion". We forget the "glorious past" so easily. Senior civil servants who were not appointed were furious and frustrated about this method.because they felt they had been given no chance whatsoever to show their potential to do the job. Now poor Manderson tries to do things in line with the PSML and discovers the fury and frustration of unsuccessful candidates remains which is channelled through an FOI request for material that Mr Manderson initially redacted or denied because he believes it infringes the successful candidates' rights to some privacy A good man trying to do the right thing and getting shafted.. Ah so it go.

      • Anonymous says:

        Simple, comply with the law. Who you think you are does not matter. The real problem is we have some that believe they are above the law.

      • Roscoe P Coltrane says:

        One word for you anon 7:41 Transparency look it up in dictionary hopefully that should  suffice. Sure sounds like you are indeed suffering from nostalgia yourself and are infact a benefactor of this unscrupulous conduct and process or just simply another member the good old boys.

  3. Raffaelle says:

    Evil has no substance of its own but is only the defect excess, peversion or corruption of that which has substance. The fight for justice against corruption is never easy it has never been and never will be, it exalts a toll on our shelf our families our friends and especially our children. In the end, the price we pay is well worth holding on to our diginity. This is something you members of these lodges who hold powerful positions in government just don't seem get it.

    • Anonymous says:

      Ok am i missing something here. The Law gave the Portfolio and the Deputy Governor's Office 45 days to provide the records and they provided it within the 45 days. So they MET the deadline – what wrong with that? Ms Dilbert why are you disappointed that the law was complied with??

      If I gave someone a deadline and they complied with it- how could I be disappointed????  if the Court gave me 45 days to pay a fine and I paid the fine on the 45th day- would the Court be disappointed – I would have though that only compliance with the Law and the IC ruling was important.

       

       

    • Anonymous says:

      If it is the Masonic Lodge to which you refer, then you have struck upon a root of the tree of institutionalized corruption in the Cayman Islands. When you have a group of individuals in said "secret society" who, by the dictate of their own "organization", are to place the other members of the lodge, whoever they are, above God, country and family then one has identified an extremely serious yet almost insurmountable set of impediments to justice, democracy, good governance and righteousness. That this is well known to most here in Cayman is no secret but it is something that is regarded with the fear of retaliation for speaking up or about it. That understanding is not something to be underestimated but it has to be addressed if there is to ever be a sustainable way forward for the Cayman Islands. This is the dangerous ground of Caymanian politics, community and society. The black hole of secrecy in which these individuals operate (governmental, private sector and/or both) is in no way different from a criminal organization in make-up, mentality and/or consequence. It is all of us who have and will continue to pay the price for the decrepitude it has and will continue to produce. The mangroves of South Sound are now set to pay the price for this institutionalized corruption but that is nothing but a drop in the bucket of blood compared to the overall desecration of the Cayman Islands and her people.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Go Jennifer! Hold their feet to the fire!

     

    If the appointments are legitimate, then good for them. The documents will proove it.

     

    If the appointments are cronyism, then bad for them. The documents will proove it.

     

    Let the light of knowledge shine.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Where is Mac??…CNS is starting to bore me…Tired of hearing about all the court cases, parrots, Stinky and now Franz…When is Mac coming home…I'm going nuts with all these lame stories…We need some juicy stuff to gossip aboiut

    Mac come on back…we need you desperately!

    • Anonymous says:

      We have our politicians scattered across the globe from Sri Lanka to North America.  You don't extect them to be here looking after our interest do you?

    • Anonymous says:

      Well, the Whirlpool trade expo wraps up Friday, so expect him back over the weekend I guess. Some great new models, apparently, and a four-year warranty for Cayman to boot! It is so important to keep voters satisfied as I am sure you would agree.

  6. Anonymous says:

    So what now?  Will these people bear any consequences?

  7. Anonymous says:

    That is because we have still not broken this culture barrier of the government wanting to do what they want to do when they want to do it. When the FOI request is controversial then most departments take advantage of the ful amount of time given to them under the Law before they comply getting every extension possible in the hope at they will frustrate the applicant. Just an abuse of power. Thank God we have FOI