Cabinet gets ICTA report
(CNS): Following revelations during the recent Finance Committee hearing that officials from the Information and Technology Authority (ICTA) may have manipulated the recruitment process in at least two posts, Cabinet has now received a report. However, government has not yet released the document. The minister with responsibility for the authority ordered the regulator’s board to look into the situation and to report back after members of the Legislative Assembly raised concerns about appointments being made, at least one of which was a work-permit holder, before deadlines on adverts running in the local and international press, making a mockery of the open recruitment protocols for government jobs.
Kurt Tibbetts, who heads up the ministry of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure which includes the ICTA, told members in Finance Committee that he would order an enquiry into what happened and report back to the country’s parliament. However, Tibbetts has not yet released the content of the report, which the government has had since at least Tuesday, when ministers meet for their weekly Cabinet session.
Efforts by CNS to contact Tibbetts for comment on the report and any subsequent action were unsuccessful but the chief officer in the ministry responded to enquiries with a short comment.
“The ICTA Board was requested to undertake a full review of the matters highlighted at Finance Committee. A detailed report has been received and been discussed by Cabinet. Further announcements will be made in due course,” Alan jones said.
Ezzard Miller, the MLA for North Side who had raised the questions that led to revelations about the irregularities, said that he had not been contacted by the minister and had not seen the report but he was far more concerned about disciplinary action being taken.
“I have no idea why a report is needed,” Miller said, and indicated that the director had been caught out. “The man misled the committee.”
The independent member said that he wanted to see action taken and some accountability for the director's actions, which he maintained had deprived local people of having a fair chance at the jobs. Miller warned that if this did not happen, he would be seeking to have the ICTA director answer directly to the LA for contempt.
Category: Politics
There needs to be a restriction placed on the MD job and Board positions, to avoid those who are straight from industry being appointed. A cooling off period of 5 years is needed for objectivity.
This whole thing is nothing but politicians finding a convenient scapegoat. This has been going on for years and in several key authorities and people have handed out contracts subject to final acceptance by immigration ( which gave the ok on this so clearly also at fault). But since they are afraid to deal with the real elephants in the room they pick on some guy who is about to retire so it can look like they are being tough on something and thats before seeing the final report on what occured here which might explain whether this was reasonable under the circumstances.
it would be far more revealing to see how several hundred caymanians get jobs every year in the civil service without as much as an interview, no cv and usually very quickly as politicians try to help voters out at taxpayers' expense.
Not the gab between salary ranges for the MD of this Authority vs that of "Crown Counsel — Criminal". That's amazing.
Not really, there is a massive over-supply of criminal lawyers.
I though the over-supply was in criminals.
Lawyers are overrated in this jurisdiction probably because the majority are making a load of mone y in financial services. Ever read the book 50 Shades of Gray, that's the business of lawyers. I would rather deal with scientists or those that apply science like doctors or engineers at least then we are dealing with black and white.
Medical science is not exact. It is not black and white. Doctors see for 5 minutes and bill you $100. It works out to about about $2,000/hr. It makes lawyers seem cheap by comparison.
Rarely if anything in life is black and white. But isnt your life more than $1000/hr ?
Perhaps Ezzad can look into all the locals that got a job working for CIG with no qualifications and no performance?
I bet you are not Caymanian. Ezzard my be an a$$ some times but he is right on this one. Maybe we should look into you and who's job you have.
I guarantee that if it was a local they would have been suspended until the outcome of the report was known.
Just look at the salary attached to that not very demanding position.We reallly must get on top of some of these salaries paid to Statutory Authority bossses, especially those (allmost all) that are losing money.
So u expect those that regulate such critical industries to be paid less than those that they regulate? Forget the incumbent but clearly you have no idea as to what industry is paying for such a high cost of living jurisdiction!
Thank you for raising three very important points.
1) The need to pay salaries competative to the private sector to recruit and retain Civil Servants competative with the private sector.
2) The need to pay salaries that are fair to the staff in this 'high cost of living jurisdiction'.
3) The need to pay salaries to regulators that is high enough that they will not be easily enticed to pad their pay with graft from those they regulate. XXXXX
Its about time the CIG started putting some numbers to these questions to show that their cost-cutting is really being applied fairly and is indeed getting value for money, or if its just setting us up for bigger problems in the near future.
Thank you for raising two important points:
1) All civil servants should be capable of spelling relatively simple words like competitive.
2) You need to understand that people who steal are called thieves. They do not steal because their kids are hungry and they need to "pad" their income. It is the nature of a thief to steal.
The salary is actually quite low compared to the top positions in industry.
An FOY please CNS you good at that. Lets see what all of the CEOS of the Authorities are making it will I belive blow peoples minds.
So the board investigated itself?
Ummmm…no. Those decisions aren't made by the board, dum dum.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz same old same old. This has been going on forever – so what is new.
Can we have an appointment that bypasses the cronies of the politicians and the cronies of the Crown? Anyone left?
The Managing Director's post is being advertised on http://www.gov.ky effective today !!!
$ame $hit different government
Now that the "got the report" lets see what they do. I am afraid to say that my belief is that nothing will be done. This is Kurt we talking about afterall. I can hear his speech now, "at the end of the day, we must remain hopeful that this will no longer occur. We must keep the faith". And that will be the end of it.
Kurt will do nothing. Anyone who knows him, knows that.
Don't worry. If a Caymanian manage to get their foot in the door they will find all kind of faults: Not Experienced; not qualified; lazy; not able to work under pressure and the list goes on.
The Managing Director's post has nowbeen advertised!
And it's shocking to see the salary range!!! Far too high for a fat cat bureaucrat!!!
I wouldn't get out of bed for $135,000.
And the clean up job required for that agency now that the chicken has flown the coop.