Archive for October, 2012
Prestigious UK scholarships up for grabs
(CNS): Local graduates now have the opportunity to apply for the internationally renowned Chevening Scholarships, a global education award from the UK government. The Scholarships, which are funded by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and partner organisations, and awarded to exceptional individuals, operate in over 100 countries worldwide, and now support about 700 students annually. Typically for a one-year Master’s degree, in any subject and at any UK university, they are aimed particularly at high quality candidates who are likely to assume leadership roles in their future careers.
There are no age limits, but candidates who have already demonstrated leadership potential will be particularly welcome. There is strong competition for the limited number of scholarships that are offered each year, local officials said.
The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office stated that the scholarship offers a unique opportunity.
“It enables talented individuals to establish social, cultural, academic or commercial partnerships with the UK,” it said. The FCO has also launched a global website, www.chevening.org, making the scholarships more accessible.
Chevening alumni have an excellent record of rising to positions of leadership across a wide range of fields: including politics, business, the media, civil society, religion, and academia. Some work as MPs, leading journalists, or policy advisers to NGOs and think tanks; others occupy senior positions in commercial organisations. Alumni include Baldwin Spencer, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda; Anote Tong, the President of Kiribati and Alvaro Uribe Velez, the former President of Colombia.
Over the past eighteen years, some 25 Caymanians have received Chevening scholarships for postgraduate study in Britain. Previous scholars have returned to the Cayman Islands to take up employment in a number of Government Departments and elsewhere. The Chevening programme is administered locally by the Governor’s Office.
Completed applications must be submitted online using the www.chevening.org website by Saturday 1 December 2012. Late applications will not be accepted. Please contact Gill Skinner (+1 345 244 2431 or Gillian.Skinner@fco.gov.uk) or Tom Hines (+1 345 244 2434 or Tom.Hines@fco.gov.uk) at the Governor’s Office if you have any questions.
$200M airport deal on table
(CNS): A deal to redevelop Owen Roberts International Airport under the coordination of the Canadian government’s procurement agency is still on the table more than a year after the premier announced the possible public-private partnership last August. According to a presentation given by Canadian Commercial Corporation along with its local partner the Paramount Group last week, it will be taking on the $200 million project to double the airport’s capacity via a concession agreement and leasing the airport for as long as 40 years. The CCC says there will be no cost to government and it will return as much as $13 million to the CIAA. However, it is still not clear if the arrangement will pass muster with the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility.
If government goes ahead with the proposed deal the corporation will be taking fees from the airport that would have gone to the government owned company. It will use that money to develop what will remain a public owned resource, which makes it subject to UK fiscal supervision.
Furthermore, it is not clear if the decision to work with the Canadian corporation and the various partners involved, including the local partner, will be considered by the FCO as meeting best international l procurement practice. In a presentation last week to local stakeholders, the various partners on the project were revealed but no tendering process has ever taken place.
Although the company has stated that itwill return millions of dollars annually to the Cayman Islands Airport Authority during the 40 year concession, it will be taking landing and other taxes from those using the airport. The corporation and its partners will make their profit mostly from the retail that will form part of the redevelopment and, it said, from doubling traffic to the airport. The $200 million development will include the extension of the runway and an expansion of the terminals. The proposed deal also includes an up-front payment to the Cayman government of $30 million.
The corporation will be responsible for the project but alongside the Paramount Group, which was described as the “strategic local partner”, the lead developer will be Aecon group inc, the aviation advisor will be Mott MacDonald Limited, the lead architect will be Scott Associates, and the money will come from Scotiabank, with Heenan Blaikie LLP, as the “Co-developer and Legal Advisor”.
The presentation reveals a commitment to employ local sub-contractors and to help civil servants working at the airport to transition into the private sector. The corporation also promises to train local staff and provide employment and engage local businesses to develop the new Airport.
The corporation said it would also work with the Cayman Islands Tourism Association (CITA) and the Department of Tourism to increase air traffic to Cayman. Under the deal the Canadian government will guarantee contract performance and to pay a yearly concession fee to the CIAA. It will run and maintain the airport to the required service levels and uphold international environmental standards.
The local airport authority will still own the airport, set the performance standards, regulate and monitor the concession and receive a share of the profits. It will also retain responsibility for air traffic control, weather, fire and rescue, security and the airports emergency plan.
Paramount released a statement as well as the CCC’s presentation regarding the talks Thursday, which stated that positive feedback had been received at all meetings held by the Canadian team. Pointing to the doubling of capacity and the cash for government, Paramount said there would be important short term safety upgrades, and the generation of significant employment opportunities and dramatically improved customer service experience, all at no cost to the Cayman Islands public purse.
“Canada, through the Canadian Commercial Corporation, offers the advantage of contracting for the delivery of complex infrastructure projects on a Government-to-Government basis. Simplified acquisition, reduced risk and an enhanced bilateral relationship are key advantages of this approach. Collaborative project definition and planning are the foundation of the project development and implementation process proposed by the Canadian team,” Paramount stated in the release.
See press statement below.
Although Paramount sent the details of the Canadian Commercial Corporation presentation unsolicited to all the media, it has requested that the documents were removed from the CNS website after they were posted with the story this morning. CNS is not sure why this request, which flies in the face of transparency, has been made. However, until we have clarified our position we have removed the documents. CNS has a policy of publishing all documents it receives as we believe this is in the public interest.
Jamaican dengue outbreak surges in wake of Sandy
(CNS): As Cayman begins to count a rise in the number of local transmission of Dengue fever Jamaica is dealing with a surge of cases according to local officials. The Jamaican health minisitry is reporting that the number of suspected cases has risen to 2198. Rainfall from Hurricane Sandy last Wednesday has created new mosquito breeding sites officials say as they warn people to be vigilant before control operations, including spraying and fogging begins again this week. Cayman is also seeing its operations increase after the fifth locally transmitted case was revealed last week. The Cayman Islands public health officials are still waiting on result of a number of other cases sent overseas for testing.
The department said it is waiting on results for a further 20 cases which means there are likely to be more confirmed locally transmitted cases over the coming weeks as a result of the recent rain and the increase in standing water where the Aedes aegypti breeds.
Passenger killed in car crash
(CNS): Update 10:42am — Police have now named the man who died in an early morning road crash Sunday morning. He was 24-year-old Egbert Robinson of Bodden Town, who was a passenger in a white Nissan Sunny which crashed into a wall on Mangrove Avenue in Prospect sometime before 3:45am on Sunday, 29 October. All of the emergency services were called to the car crash as both the passenger and the driver were trapped in the wrecked car. The driver, who has been identified by Cayman 27 as 25-year-old Eduardo Robinson Jr, the victim's brother, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of DUI and Causing Death by Dangerous driving after he was released from the wreckage, police said. He remains in hospital in a stable condition.
Egbert Robinson, who was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital in George Town, is the fifth person to die on Cayman’s roads this year and the second killed this month.
Police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the accident to call George Town police station on 949-4222 to assist the investigation.
Man critical after three stab wounds
(CNS): A man who received three stab wounds during an incident in McField Square in George Town is in a critical condition at the Cayman Islands Hospital after early morning surgery, police said Sunday. A second man is in custody after being arrested at the scene near to Jah T’s restaurant. Police received a report at around 12:45am on Sunday 29 October about the stabbing after the victim was taken to the hospital in a private car. Officers were sent to both the hospital, where the victim was being rushed to surgery, and to the location of the stabbing, where the suspect was arrested.
The police have not yet revealed any further details but say the matter is under investigation and an update will be released in due course. Anyone with information is asked to contact the RCIPS on 949 4222 or the hotline 949-7777 or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477(TIPS).
Man robbed in early morning street mugging
(CNS): A man was reportedly robbed of jewellery and cash during an early morning mugging on Saturday while walking through a car park off Lawrence Boulevard. Police said that the 21-year-old man made the complaint to them at 7:25am. He told police that he was in the parking lot near the A La Kebab Restaurant at around 3am Saturday when he asked another man for a light but was then robbed of his gold chain and CI$100 cash. The police said the victim received a slight injury during the incident. The robber is described as about 25 years old, dark complexion, slim built about 6 feet tall, short dark curly hair, with a Caymanian accent and wearing a short sleeve baggy t-shirt.
After the mugging the robber got into a silver car waiting nearby, which had three other people in it. The robber and his companions drove off towards West Bay, the police stated.
Anyone with information on this incident or who was in the vicinity during the time is asked call 949 4222.
Port denies FOI abuse
(CNS): The Port Authority of the Cayman Islands denied that it had breached either “the spirit or the letter of the FOI Law” in the wake of a damning ruling from the information commissioner, who condemned the authority for the way it had handled a freedom of information request about the GLF proposals to build the cruise berthing facilities in George Town. In a media statement released Friday evening following Jennifer Dilbert’s extremely critical findings regarding a hearing requested by CNS, the port refused to accept that it had done anything wrong, stating that it was “surprised and disappointed by the tone” of the commissioner’s decision.
“The Port Authority does not believe that the critical comments are in any way justified, nor are they relevant to the legal issues that were the subject of the ICO's ruling,” the port stated in its release following the decision published by CNS on Thursday.
“It is denied that the Port Authority has breached either the spirit or the letter of the FOI Law, and any suggestions to that effect are strongly rejected. However, as the matter is still within the period for any appeal, the Port Authority does not believe that it is appropriate at this stage to debate the issues in the media,” the authority said after releasing the media statement.
However, CNS takes a different position and agrees with Dilbert’s ruling. Wendy Ledger, the CNS reporter who made the request, said, "Given the circumstances, it was an extremely restrained opinion from the commissioner and a credit to her professionalism.”
When CNS asked for the release of documents from the port that had already been ruled on by Dilbert in a previous decision, the authority refused on the grounds that CNS was a different applicant, despite already knowing that the documents were not exempt under the law.
For no reason other than the authority’s recalcitrance, CNS was forced to wait for the full thirty days, and when the documents were released it was clear that there were many more. Given the already protracted issues relating to the request, CNS handed the case over to the ICO, which then faced endless delays and difficulties from the authority.
Despite the obstructionism and time wasting by the authority, the ICO were eventually able to see all of the documents and Jan Liebaers, the deputy commissioner, spent many days ploughing through reams of documentation examining what was exempt, what was irrelevant and what should be released — a job which should have been undertaken by the port authority information manager.
“It was without doubt one of the most protracted FOI cases CNS has had to deal with,” said Ledger. "From the very outset, when it refused to release the original documents to CNS because we were a ‘different applicant’, the port set the tone for how this request progressed. We don’t do FOI requests at CNS for the good of our health or because we are bored, we do them because they are issues of public interest," she noted.
“Many people are still afraid to make request for a number of what are probably unfounded reasons and there is an expectation that the media will do this on the public’s behalf. After all, the Caymanian public will be the ones in the end who are footing what will be an enormous bill for the cruise facilities,” Ledger added.
In its statement on Friday the port clung to the issue of legal privilege over why it refused to release records, stating that it would consider its position regarding the documents which Dilbert said should be released.
See full port statement below.
Related article:
MLAs silent on dump debate
(CNS): The two government representatives for Bodden Town have remained silent in the face of an invitation by district activists to engage in a debate over the relocation of the landfill to their constituency. Neither minister Mark Scotland or back-bencher Dwayne Seymour have responded to the invititation sent to both men on Monday, which followed the challenge issued by former district MLA Charles Clifford to publicly discuss the issue with him and Gregg Anderson, a coalition leader in the Bodden Town Civic Centre. Scotland reportedly agreed to the debate after he called into the radio morning talk show on Rooster last week when Clifford was a guest, telling the host he accepted the challenge .
However, the coalition now believes the environment minister and his UDP colleague are backing out. Coalition members said Friday that they have not even received an acknowledgment from either of the men following the email sent out setting out the proposed parameters for the debate and allowing the district MLAs to choose a convenient date before 10 November.
Charles Clifford said that there was “not even the courtesy of a reply to our private letter following up on his agreement to a public debate.”
The former environment minister and MLA for the district, who lost his seat to Seymour by a thin margin in the 2009 election, said he did not believe either man would have been elected had they campaigned on a platform that included moving the landfill to Bodden.
“Had Minister Scotland and Mr Seymour promised the people of Bodden Town a garbage dump when they were campaigning in 2009, they would not have been elected,” Clifford said as he accused the two representatives of breaking promises to their constituents and refusing to address their continued request for answers on the dump issue. “They know what they are doing is wrong and against the wishes of their constituents and that is why they are running and hiding.”
Although Clifford has resigned from the opposition PPM since he lost his Bodden Town seat, it is understood that he has not retied from politics and is likely to run in the May 2013 elections in the district where he is strongly tipped to be returned. After completing his articles earlier this year with judicial services, Clifford was called to the bar recently and has since stepped back into the public limelight. He has lent his public support to the coalition in its vociferous opposition to the idea of moving the George Town landfill to a new pristine site for the benefit of one developer rather than tackling the problem in situ for the benefit of all.
Clifford and coalition leader Vincent Frederick were guests of Cayman Crosstalk on 15 October when Scotland called in about the proposal to move the landfill. Clifford challenged Scotland to a public debate on the issue and Austin Harris said at the end of the show that Scotland had informed him he would accept the challenge.
On 22 October coalition chairman Alain Beiner followed up and sent a letter via email to Scotland and Seymour outlining a proposed formatfor the debate and asking for a reply within 48 hours.
The coalition members said they had received an automated receipt confirmation from Seymour’s Blackberry so they were confident the men have the correspondence but despite asking Scotland to respond within two days by Friday, the two MLAs remained silent.
“A public debate is the best forum for both sides – the two government MLAs for Bodden Town who support the proposed dump and the Coalition which opposes it – to openly and fairly present their arguments to the people of Bodden Town and of the entire island,” Beiner said. “How else can ordinary people fully understand the issue? How else can Government’s ‘public consultation of a technical nature’, apparently promised for November, be in the least bit meaningful, and relevant to the real-life concerns of our district?”
He said the coalition considers a public debate an essential part of the process and regrets the lack of any responsefrom the Bodden Town MLAs for Bodden Town. “They continue to hide from the people who elected them. Was Minister Scotland’s radio-show agreement to a debate just another lie?” Beiner asked.
See email to Scotland and Seymour below.
Local business donates ‘junk’ to Red Cross
(CNS): A local company that charges people and business to collect their over-sized rubbish and dispose of it is donating some of that junk to the Red Cross the local charity ash revealed. Not all of the discarded stuff collected by the trash experts is necessarily rubbish some the firm said is in very good condition and as a result they are taking the items to the charity store rather than adding to the growing Mount Trashmore at the George Town landfill. “We are always in need of good quality items to meet the growing needs of our client base,” said the Thrift Shop Manager, Remy Imperial who offered her thanks to the local company.
“We are very grateful that JUNK Removal & Recycling have been so proactive in partnering with us,” she added.
“We decided to team up with the CI Red Cross as we constantly found that a good deal of items from the removal jobs we did were still in very good condition,” explained JUNK owner/manager Mark Conolly. “We figured we would help recycle by passing these items, such as furniture, appliances, and others, to the Thrift Shop rather than throwing it away and adding to the landfill,” he said.
The Cayman Islands Red Cross Thrift Shop serves not only as a store but also as a community programme where vulnerable persons who are assessed by the Red Cross or referred by partnering agencies are given access to the goods free of charge to them.
“Along with dropping the items off to us, Mr. Conolly also gets in touch with us so that we can also do pick up of donations,” Imperial said. “We are always encouraging the public to use our donation pick up service, which is free of cost to the donor,” she adds.
The CI Red Cross Thrift Shop is open Tuesday-Friday, 9am-2pm & 5pm-7pm, and on Saturday, 7:30am-1:30pm. Donations are accepted any time the Red Cross is open. For more information, contact the Thrift Shop Manager on shop@redcross.org.ky or 949-6785ext. 31.
RCIPS sets fire to drugs and fake handbags
(CNS): It took four pick-up trucks to transport more the more than 830lbs of drugs as well as a collection of counterfeit goods to the George Town dump this morning where the RCIPS set fire to it all. The burning included a collection of evidence seized by police and used in criminal cases that have now been dealt with. The police burned a total of 813lbs of ganja and some 20lbs of cocaine which was take of the streets of Cayman as well as a collection of fake designer bags, wallets and other accessories which alone filled up one of the pick-up trucks used to transport the goods to the landfill. (Photo by Dennie Warren Jr)
A police spokesperson said that drug burns are not unusual and are carried out when there is an operational need and on the agreement of the courts when the drugs are no longer required for evidence.
“The seizures of the drugs were mainly as a result as a result of proactive policing operations throughout the jurisdiction and shows that we are making a real dent in the importation and availability of drugs on the islands,” she added.