Board ‘shoots messenger’
(CNS): Despite the obvious issues at the Cayman Islands Airports Authority, the board of directors has issued a statement condemning the leaking of the details of the internal audit and taking aim at the MLA who was given the evidence of mismanagement of public funds. Rather than referring any of the issues to the police or explaining to the public what is being done to address financial mismanagement issues, the board said it had commissioned another review of the board’s audit by an independent firm and accused Ezzard Miller of electioneering with the leaked documents. Miller hit back saying shooting the messenger was not going to address the problems at the airport.
“The Board is dismayed and disappointed that the audit issues and report have been leaked to the media, clandestinely or illegally,” the board chair said in the statement released on Tuesday following the revelations last week about mismanagement issues at the airport and the suspension of the airport CEO. “The Board maintains that there should be irreconcilable differences of emphasis between the dissemination of gossip material and confidential institutional reports that may have consequential and direct personal effect on individuals.”
However, Miller pointed out that taking aim at him as the conduit of the information when it was quite clear the board was sitting on this situation was unfair to both the public and the CEO. “Never mind criticising me for exposing the report, the authority should be dealing with misuse of public money that has occurred underits watch,” Miller added.
Richard Arch, the chairman of the CIAA Board, claimed that the board had to face the economic and financial position with realism and the members were not allowing themselves to be carried away by the “quite understandable desire to court electoral popularity”, as they took aim at Miller, who was the recipient of the leaked report and bundle of supporting evidence. “Our management and our functions must be above politics," he said on the board's behalf.
However, other sources suggest the issue has a very political source and the board members themselves have been criticised for their own potential conflicts because of some members' business interests being connected to the airport. The source of the leak is unknown but the audit and subsequent report that was carried out by one of the board members, who is a qualified accountant, was leaked anonymously to the North Side MLA, who passed the documents to CNS. The board said the findings were comprehensive and professional.
“We profoundly believe that the efficiency and the productivity of the Authority must be first and paramount and must not give way to political expediency. The Board cannot obtain or maintain those goals where confidential reports are leaked to the media before proper and satisfactory actions upon them are taken,” the chair said. “The reward for the public should be what we are trying to accomplish and not what is expedient to get elected to political office.”
Having engaged an independent firm to review the findings of the audit and report, the board said that when that was complete it would then make a decision on the issues and share the decision with the public.
“It would seem that in this country, at this time, one cannot trust the privacy of conversation and communication. That augers ill for the democratic future of our country and makes the inevitability of a suppressive state possible,” the board stated, again criticising the exposure rather than the issues at hand, which involves the abuse of public money and unresolved cases of theft of some $100,000, among other issues. It admitted in the statement, however, that the board is legally responsible for overseeing the effective performance of the authority and claimed that this was what it is doing in a “meticulous and sober manner”.
A pre-condition of his appointment as chairman in 2011, Arch said, was that the ministry undertook a forensic audit of the CIAA. But the board complained that from the date of Arch’s appointment to June 2012 communications from the board about the audit were unanswered by the ministry, which was under the former premier’s portfolio at the time. As a result, Arch initiated the audit in the face of what were said to be on-going concerns focusing on expenses of the authority to ensure they were compliant with its policies, public service laws and regulations.
He said that after receiving the results at an extraordinary meeting, the financial controller was dismissed and the chief executive officer, Jeremy Jackson, was suspended with full pay. “At Jackson’s request the Board agreed that these pending matters would remain confidential,” the board said.
See full statement below.
Related article on CNS:
Category: Politics
This island is crazy a board attempts to do somethiing because the appointed civil servants failed to extend a helping hand with the audit, so know the board is being critized!! You all have this thing so backwards!!
I listened to the press statement on the radio and this board seems to have good people on it and they were carrying out a fair and profesional process. I am sure the next step will be drop off of documents to the police.
Sitting here looking at my PC in disgust & anger. What has my island and people come to?! This is ludicrous! This is a damn disgrace! I say who ever the big man is, Franz maybe? Wipe all boards, all departments, statutory authorites CLEAN of the bull shit, fast spreading cancer taking over these islands!!!!!
I don't care which lodge they are in cohorts with, or who has what, or what their last names are…I said to get them moving! Time to crack the damn whip on their asses now!
CNS, I pray that their is nothing but positive headlines in the future. I declare this in the name of Jesus. The Cayman Islands needs a clean SWEEP!
We are all well aware of the "if you tell on me I will tell on you" of the Caymanian brotherhood…and I am not talking about all Caymanians but the ones really running this country…they are business men and politicians. And then there are the brotherhood wanna-bees…I hope, maybe ignorantly, that some of the new politcians finally running aren't part of either.
Ignorantly.
There are people with integrity involved with the airport board. The whistleblower for one and possibly the only one.
What has happened to our little island that time forgot? I read in the news a rapist of a minor gets a 2 year suspended sentence, premier is under investigation and arrested but no charges laid, minister of education denies drunk driving but pleads guilty, west bay road closure eminent, dump being moved to Bodden town under protest, people going missing and cannot be found, CEOs misappropriating funds and the list goes on. Caymanians are we really better off today?
Ezzard keep being for the people. It appears greed have taking over this country and we cannot see the forest for the trees. I read today that UDP and his cronies in Bodden town last night promise to lower fuel costs, duty, health care etc…if they get back in. My question is why did they not visit or look into these issues whilst they were still in power? What is stopping them from looking into now? Caymanians we should demand better and hold people on boards accountable lodge or no lodge. Right is right and wrong is wrong.
Is anyone aware that besides Mr. Flowers being a board member and a owner of an a business operating at the airport that also Mr. seymour is not only a politician but also a business owner at the airport? How are these things allowed?
How about Al T Thompson and Heber Arch controlling the Planning Board. A little conflict I would say. Seems to be the norm for these Boards.
Its an intitlement. That always trumps any laws here. O wait. Is there any laws against that here? No matter. Its Cayman islands. They are Caymanians. Here there is "honesty,integity and justice" and then there is "honerable for life honesty, integrity and justice". That is how these things are allowed.
Time to clean house and appoint board members that do not have conflicts of interest.
Enough pigs at the trough.
Mac said YES the Boards are political. He has put cronies in place, they have filled their pockets, and it is time to THROW ALL THE BUMS OUT!
Is there a conflict of interest law that the Financial Crimes Units can address? Please….every Board from Immigration, to NRA, to Planning is only filled with people that benefit from their own industries and not the interest of the people.
This is a good read and clears up the facts….Mr Bush, you said it yourself in 2009!
http://centos6-httpd22-php56-mysql55.installer.magneticone.com/o_belozerov/31115drupal622/headline-news/2009/07/26/mac-says-boards-are-political
"A pre-condition of his appointment as chairman in 2011, Arch said, was that the ministry undertook a forensic audit of the CIAA. But the board complained that from the date of Arch’s appointment to June 2012 communications from the board about the audit were unanswered by the ministry, which was under the former premier’s portfolio at the time. As a result, Arch initiated the audit in the face of what were said to be on-going concerns focusing on expenses of the authority to ensure they were compliant with its policies, public service laws and regulations."
Was this then under Norman Bodden's tenure as Chairman? And were you Mr. Arch not Dep. Chairman at that time?
Why did you need to have a forensic audit before becoming chairman when you were Dep. Chair all along?? Usually new people coming to the Chair/Board ask for this, not current, long-serving Directors making it a condition of being named Chairman.
Or are you trying to distance yourself from what Mr. Norman allowed/did as Chairman?
“Our management and our functions must be above politics," he [Arch] said on the board's behalf.
Mr. Arch, in case you didnt know, the very nature of your/the Boards appointment is a political one – how can you now try to speak of being non-political? You even take direction from a politician/Minister, so how can you be non-political?
Maybe the problemis not the chairman but the other board members!! Just a thought as the chairman did say he requested the audit!!
UDP appointed board. Why do we expect more? How can you have a CIAA board where the board members are also some of its biggest business partners?
What I find most troubling is that Mr Jackson is suspended, obviously because of the need for an investigation in which he is allegedly involved, either culpably or negligently, and yet he is allowed to set the terms of his suspension….. How come he was allowed to ask for the matter to be kept confidential?
Get PWC or EY or one of the big audit companies in there to investigate and issue a very public report as to what is going on. That is about the only way the truth will come out.
Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The aviation authority is not General Motors. There are lots of smaller quite capable audit firms out there. By the way in my day he work was subcontracted by the AG to Coopers and Lybrand. Let us hope it was not subcontracted during the year these problems took place.
Chris, it needs a big name to avoid other "slurs" or corruption allegations..
What pray is a big name? Big names bring big fees. Would you settle for an audit firm approved by CIMA, of which there over twenty? Moreover do not judge a firm by it’s size. Have you seen all the mega lawsuits out there against the big four, starting with Madoff, I suspect not.
The Grant Thorntons and BDOs whilst not in the big four are perfectly capable of auditing the Civil Aviation Authority. They are just two of many respectable Cayman auditing firms.
If you refer to firms not approved by CIMA then possibly I might agree.
Suggesting that utilizing other firms would involve a slur or corruption allegation is highly improper.
On the other hand it would be nice to get the comments on this subject from the non big four audit firms but I guess that is unlikely to happen due to fears of recrimination. After all they do need work permits and fears brought to bear on partners of these firms by the past premier does not help. Hopefully those days will end and Cayman will welcome free speech from Residents and Caymanians alike.
Bureaucrats always hate to be exposed. They like to control their cosy environment and hate it when anyone, especially a insider, upsets their applecart.
This sort of abuse would never happen if Government demanded(and got) annual auditsof its agencies, not by insiders but by qualified independent outside auditors
This , my friends, is a classic example of the old adage, "throw a rock in a pig pen and whichever one squeals is the one that got hit" The board is screaming blue murder about Mr. Miller releasing the report, but if he had not, we would STILL not know about any of this…and to think, the board members AGREED to Mr. Jackson's request to keep the contents of this report confidential..appalling..
You are right, that is the problem (as big of problem or perhaps even more), "the board members AGREED to Mr. Jackson's request to keep the contents of this report confidential..appalling."
I thank god for FOI and whistleblowers.
Just give him back his job & make him pay back his 17k lunch booze $$!
Caymanian
"Just give him back his job…" — Thumb down.
"…& make him pay back his 17k lunch booze $$!" — Thumb up.
sad. the Board is disappointed because 1000s of dollars disappeared on their watch, and it got out. nothing further.
dosent seem right that Mr. Flowers shoud be allowed to sit on the board as the owner of the largest private company operating in the arport.i have alwys wondered how this alowed.
Amen! What about Richard Arch….Air Agencies
Mr. Dick Arch is the owner and Chairman of Air Agencies Ltd (an aircraft ground handling agency) and Mr. Frankie Flowers Sr is the owner and Chairman of FADS (a security and screening service provider).
There is an attempt to hide these matters until the elections are over. Why did the board agree to keep these findings confidential when the funds abused/stolen belong to the people of this country. When people are starving without jobs, how could an CEO of publicly owned authority release funds to purchase liquor for business lunches on working days. Mekeewa was sleeping on the steering wheel all these times.
Because the information in the report is not accurate. And there is written documentation to prove it.
No, Mr Dick Arch, this "leak" is a direct result of the Board's failure to have this / these matters addressed in a timely and efficient manner!
The FACT that it has taken 4 years to even get to this point shows the disregard by the members (previous to your appointment) to ensure that they carried out thier duties effectively.
And while it appears that you (Mr Dick Arch) have been the spear-head of this Audit / Investigation, let me remind you that you are appointed to Chair a Public Authority, and as such you ARE responsible to us, the public, and you answer to us.
This is "the people's" money, and you are paid a salary to perform your job on our behalf.
Can he also be prosecuted under the LAW for Financial Crimes? He KNEW about this as the Chairman and tried to hide it?
The kinds of crimes these executives commit generally fall into one of two categories. In the first case, CEOs mean to profit directly from their actions, including offenses such as insider trading and embezzlement. Examples of this include Tyco’s CEO Dennis Kozlowski and Adelphia’s CEO Jonathan Rigas, who each stole millions of dollars from their companies.
In most other cases of executive white-collar crime, however, CEOs (Chairman + Board members) are not stealing directly from their companies. Instead, they are trying to ensure the safety of their jobs by promoting the appearance of success of their companies through fraud, false accounting and bribery, among others.
See the rest of the story and tell me that our BOARDS don't need complete clean sweeps? No More conflict of interest, no more cronyism contracts!
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/10-ceos-who-went-boardroom-cell-block-783944
Our Government is really and truly the biggest comedy club of the caribbean. This is the only place where strings can be pulled, a few calls made and a buddy of a buddy or a croonie is appointed to certain positions and given a title nicely wrapped with a ribbon!
So as I understand it, this in this fiasco a board member with fifteen years of audit expertise did a forensic audit. We have no idea who that is because Mr Arch failed to tell us. Yet another lack of transparency in the Cayman Islands. Moreover it was not disclosed whether this director was paid.
When things go wrong in Statutory Authorities the board should appoint an independent person or firm to do forensic audits, a phase Mr Arch seeks to like,
As an ex auditor I always felt that all audits were forensic. How actually can you have an audit which is not forensic? Forensic is just a buzz word which carries no meaning. Certainly Dan Duguay never used the word and he knew what it was all about.
We have now been informed that an independent firm has been employed and at what expense might I ask? Did the engagement go out to tender? Certainly my firm knew nothing about it, not that we wanted it. We know Government cannot pay it’s bills.
In conclusion on this very unsavory matter it is abundantly clear that there is no proper system of internal control at the CIAA. The entire board of directors should be fired and replaced by competent, qualified and independent directors of no political persuasion and who cannot be bought.
Time to clean out the stables.
The audit was carried out by Jewel Hydes. XXXX
Who no long is employed at Butterfield for what again???????????
Much respect, Mr. Johnson
A review of a review? Come on Mr. Arch! Once there is reason to believe a crime has been committed, you should have involvedthe police. Your actions are only delaying the inevitable and creating an environment for a claim of human rights abuse. How can you justify such a delay by doing the same thing twice and then having further delays as the police investigate and how can you justify keeping a non fuctioning person on full pay? You are holding back and depriving the organisation of an employee. I suggest that you get on with having this matter speedily addressed.
Oh dear….
I was with him pretty much all the way to 'At the request of…..confidential'…
What?
So the Board (or specifically the Chairman) insisted that an audit should take place and eventually took it into their own hands to do it when officialdom was not putting it in motion….good for them.
That report we know (thanks to Mr Miller) uncovered 'evidence' (NB I am specifically and carefully not saying proof) of theft and misconduct by staff. The most senior Executive in the Authority is then suspended but asks the Board not to tell anybody about the report…and they agree!!!!!
Now to be clear it may be that the grounds for Mr Jackson's suspension are simply competence based in which case I think it is very reasonable for him to ask and understandable for the Board to agree that the details of those issues remain strictly between them and him – before, during and after any further investigation that may lead to his termination or reinstatement.
That does not give anyone – the Board, Mr Jackson or anyone else, the right to keep confidential details of suspected criminal activity. All evidence indicating possible criminal activity uncovered by the report should have been made available to the Police and only the Police… first by the Board, then by the whistleblower and finally by Mr Miller.
The whistleblower I can have sympathy with as we can perhaps assume he thought Mr Miller would do the right thing and place the evidence in the hands of the Police without drawing attention to the whistleblower. Mr Miller has been misguided in what I have to agree with Mr Arch appears to be electioneering rather than the pursuit of justice / exposure of a passive cover up by the Board to the authorities but again I can see some counterargument / mitigant to this if he was shortcircuiting things based on a firm belief that the police would do nothing. The Board though……
These guys are not stupid and must have known that what they were doing in failing to report what their own member had uncovered as being an apparent crime. That they did not pass the file to the police – and even now seem not to see that that is the right thing to do – beggars belief.
The impeccable management of all aspects of airport management is an essential in so many ways – if the Board fails to act immediately and appropriately on this sort of thing – including passing it to authorities – what else will they fail on. If their ability to effectively oversee the operations of our airports is in any way brought into question there could be massive international travel repercussions. Imagine if the 'crime' had been to allow people regularly to trespass into the 'sterile' areas of the airport?. What makes us (or the American authorities for example) believe that the board would not agree to keep that confidential?????
You are an idiot. Everyone knows that if Ezzard Miller had done anything, except exactly what he did, that people like you and me would NEVER have heard about what was going on at the Aitport Authority. Had it not been for Ezzard, even CNS would not have heard about it and you would not be on here pontificating about what Ezzard did.
You are no better than Mr. Arch and Mr. McField …. you just HAD to take a dig at Ezzard. Keep your personality out of this. The Police do not think that Mr. Miller committed ANY crime, so who are you, or Mr. Arch, to suggest that it is Mr. Miller who should have done things differently?
Ezzard I wish to encourage you to continue to bring these things to light for the betterment of Cayman.
Enough of this waste, it does NOT matter what your last name is and who you are connected to, you need to be held to account for wanton waste of public funds, whither it amounts to a crime or not, you should be exposed.
Oops…2 troll votes against my post. Apologies to you 2…help me out… Which piece is imflammatory or off topic?
Stop pussy footing around… who does Divck Arch think he is to allow this. This is not a private firm its our money.
Arch is as much as fault as the accuser
they must be big Mac trained , looking for someone to blame. but the blame game never sets the records straight.
Having engaged an independent firm to review the findings of the audit and report, the board said that when that was complete it would then make a decision on the issues and share the decision with the public???
Sorry, the time for crony auditors is over! This should now be the Auditor General's remit with RCIP and Financial Crimes involvement.Stealing is stealing and I don't care if it is a free airline tickets, a conflict of inerest contract awarded to a crony, or office supplies.
It is time for accountability. No more sweeping lost cash under the rug. The NEW Cayman is at hand. No more politics and Boards that serve themselves.
We demand better.
Fire Arch, plain and simple
You are so ignorant of the situation, this man took the initative after not getting any help from the premier or the chief officer to do an audit as he stated in his speech!! The man took it on his own after several attempts and has succeeded in doing so, Congrats to Mr. Arch and the Board you guys did a great job and i know you will continue the process by turning over the files to the police. etc
As usual in Cayman when Government/politically appointed boards are concerned, this is a total shambles with incompetence, cover up of Caymanians, conflicts of interest and corruption in full flow. We need a law to govern the way Authoritories operate and make sure they comply with all relevant laws.
A draft Public Authorities Law was in circulation some years back which sought to control abuses in the statutory authorities and government companies but because it cut back on the many perks available to management and Board members and set out what was inappropriate behaviour and ways of doing business, certain influential heads of some authorities raised hell about it and nothing happened – it disappeared (though some of us still have copies). Conflicts of interest such as are rife in the Board in this case were prevented by the draft as were other examples of nefarious conduct in the authorities which are increasingly being revealed by FOI requests.
CNS: Could you possibly email a scanned copy of the draft law to info@caymannewsservice.com?
I can't do that CNS because I lack the technical know-how to do that without revealing my identity and I am not prepared to do that.. But you should be able to get a copy from the Legislative Drafting dept. If they claim ignorance, keep pursuing it because there were elements in there at the time (and they are still there) who opposed the necessity for the law for reasons I won't go into into but they cannot deny the draft exists. Failing that, ask Franz Manderson's Portfolio for a draft. He is a decent no bullshit man who had nothing to do with the original draft's suppression. And he is having to cope with the corruption and conflicts of interest that are spilling over into your pages!
Very easy. Copy the section of the email that doesn’t have yours or the person who sent its personal info on it and paste it into a word or text document and put that new document on a jump drive. Create a new hotmail or yahoo account and go down to the public library where they have publics computers, log onto your email and attach the document to it. Email sent! You are now a whistleblower!
Should I wear my Groucho Marx disguise while I am at the public library?!!
Interesting post 14:11. I am a lawyer in the private sector and I was shown this draft maybe 8/9 years ago and asked for an opinion. It seemed to me a very well thought out law, although I suggested some amendments. I was later told it had gone nowhere because the Government legal department "didn't like it". I gather they did not come up with it so that is a no-no, they resent other people drafting laws. We are not well served by our govermnent lawyers -terrible hide-bound old fashioned ways of doing things in which they think they are the only people with the expertise to create laws and administer them. Friends in the civil service say the legislative drafting is slow and not up to date and obstructive tp progress.
What is Ezzard's email, I got info on another authority he needs to know about!
No need for his e-mail. I heard his truck has a special drop off slot for leaked information the public needs to know about. Any1 out there know the make and model and lic plate #? I'm getting my manilla envelope all sealed up and wanna be sure I have the right drop box. Rumor has it there is a few of them.
Here is his truck information – a loyal blue, oops royal blue 1956 Ford Ranger, licence plate “justdoit” there is a slit in the convertible soft top, just pretend you are brushing leaves and as smooth as james brown, just let it slide right in – you owe me for this ya na! .
How you expect to pass that private and confidential information on to him by e-mail? are you crazy? personal delivery bobo and be careful now because the whole RCIPS probably have him on 24/7 surveillance. lol !! what a mess !
What a ridiculous response. They have been caught with their pants down and now are seeking to distract with this nonsense. They are out of sorts because now it won't be so easy to sweep under the rug. Typical UDP. It reminds me how they engineered this Commsision of Inquiry against Charles Clifford which focussed only on the leak not whether the substance of his allegations were true.
So the board is mismanaging the mismangement issue? Presumably they will mismanage their mismanagement of it until eventually the whole thing is so tied up in bureaucratic confusion it will take 10 years for any findings to be made.
How can they say that the report's findings are "comprehensive and professional" and yet be unwilling or unable to act on them? Instead they are wasting more time and money getting a report on the report.
How about reading the report they have and making a decision (since that is their job). Why is that so hard?
It's pretty plain to see that the CEO misused CIAA money, so he should be sacked immediately. If there is any suggestion that the misuse was criminal it should be referred to the authorities so they can decide whether or not to arrest and charge him.
THIS type of pathetic bureaucratic circus is why the country is broke.
If Ezzard was truly interested in due process he would have referred the leaked report to the police and other authorities to ensure it was being addressed.
But Ezzard is only interest is in listening to himself being outraged on a Tuesday morning.
I for one am extremely glad that "Ezzard is only interest (sic) is (sic) in listening to himself being outraged on a Tuesday morning" !
Were it not for Ezzard, we would all be in the dark about this travesty. His political interest appears to be to the benefit of the Caymanian public so yea for him. No one else seems to care enough to be outraged, and,……… they should.
Mr.Miller is the only one with the courage to do what is right. He is the one who pushed the Stan Thomas incedent, do u recall.
And where do you think that would end up after being passed to them? Down another secret bottomless pit! Bring it to light, let the people know what’s really going on. The only little piece of hope I have left for these islands is the fact thatelection. Is a few months away, please people, don’t let me down this time, we need to clean up government totally!
And if he had done that you and every other reader here would have known absolutely nothing about it, and the use of taxpayers money involved, EVER! Would that be a better outcome?
What a crock. Mr. Arch and “The Board” should have made a public statement on this the same day they removed the CEO. It’s not your money! I’m quite sure your authority as a
board does not include covering up fraud and theft. Don’t forget, Mr. Arch, you work for we the people. the whole lot of you dinosaurs needs to go.
You hit a nerve with this one Ezzard! The Lodge had this one covered until you went public. Now look at the mess you made. It’s all your fault! Don’t you know how we do things around here ole boy?
The Chairman is not the same Dick Arch that owns Air Agencies at the airport right? Anyone wanting a license to compete with Air Agencies must get a license approved by this Board of Directors. No way it could be the same man because that in itself would be corruption in my book.
Yes he is he declared that on radio cayman last Friday when they made a public statement.
Not ony that, but as I said elsewhere, the new "Acting Director" owns a limo and transportation company. Who you think you have to apply to when you want to get a license to go and pick people up from the airport in a limo? Think you gonna get a license to compete directly with HIS company..Yeah, right…