New boss appointed to roads authority

(CNS): The Board of Directors of the National Roads Authority (NRA) has now filled the position of managing director, left vacant after Brian Tomlinson was sacked in 2012 because, the board at the time claimed, the authority was “downsizing”. However, earlier that year Tomlinson had ordered the seizure of a controversial shipment of 32 tonnes of dynamite that came into Cayman without the correct paperwork, which triggered a police investigation involving the premier and the private sector firm, Midland Acres. Paul Parchment has now been appointed to the post of MD on a 3-year contract, effective from 8 August 2014.

This Board was appointed during the last quarter of 2013 and took the decision earlier this year to launch an open recruitment process to substantively fill the post of managing director, authorities said. The Portfolio of the Civil Service provided professional human resource advice and support and the position was advertised in mid-April. Only two candidates were short-listed from those who applied and these were the two senior NRA employees who had alternately acted in the position.

The candidates were given written assignments and interviewed by a panel of five persons – four from the NRA Board and one from the private sector with professional HR experience. The Board of Directors accepted the recommendation of the panel that the job be offered to Parchment, who joined the Public Works Department in 1988 as an engineering aide. He holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Florida A&M and a master’s in road management and engineering from the University of Birmingham.

“We are pleased to have been able to resolve this matter. It was fundamental to the effectiveness of the Board and the agency that there be a full-time head of the authority” said Board Chair Donnie Ebanks. “We are also pleased that a suitable candidate could be found within the agency. There is much that needs to be done and the Board looks forward to working with Mr Parchment over the next few years to enhance the road infrastructure,” he added.