Archive for August, 2014
ICO presses government over FOI email access
(CNS): Following an investigation into the functionality of government's email address for FOI requests, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found that at least ten percent of the email contacts given to facilitate requests in government departments were not working. The acting commissioner has raised his concerns that for public authorities to meet their statutory obligations under the FOI Law, these addresses must function properly and that the public must be clear on who is a given authority’s information manager. With administrative issues still plaguing FOI requests, it seems that even in the first instance some authorities are falling short.
“Any problems with the functionality of the designated email addresses could potentially form a serious obstacle to FOI applicants, and the Information Commissioner’s Office decided to investigate and take remedial action,” Acting Commissioner Jan Liebaers explained in relation to the office’s enquiry.
During the review of the email addresses the ICO found a catalogue of reasons why test emails topublished FOI addresses were ignored, from confusion over which employee was responsible for monitoring the FOI email inbox to spam filters blocking the mail.
In his report Liebers said that messages sent to the FOI email addresses were not being forwarded to the appropriate employees, that when staff responsible for FOI were moved no new staff was delegated, and for some reason few information managers were receiving the request made via FOI emails to their own in-boxes.
“In the view of the ICO there is no level of FOI service disruption that is acceptable, irrespective of the total volume of requests a public authority might receive. Maintaining and monitoring an email address is not a burdensome task and most of the issues encountered could be rectified with relative ease,” he found.
He also pointed out that while the majority of public authorities did receive and respond to the ICO test mail they may still need to improve some aspects of their internal procedures relating to FOI and their designated FOI email addresses.
“All public authorities should remain vigilant and seek to avoid the pitfalls,” he said. “Each public authority should make sure that the FOI-related duties of IMs are fulfilled on an ongoing basis. For instance, when an IM is absent, for whatever reason, a Deputy IM should be in place to answer FOI requests, and when an IM is assigned to other duties or leaves the public authority, a new IM should be appointed, and given appropriate procedural and technical access to fulfill that important role.”
Liebaers made a number of recommendations in his report which included written clear, consistent and accountable internal procedures to ensure that upon appointment an IM is clearly advised of their duties and responsibilities and provided with appropriate training. He said that an IM’s duties and responsibilities must be transferred to the Deputy IM or another employee when the IM takes up another position, is assigned other duties or leaves their position with the public authority, or is absent for any other reason.
He said that emails sent to the public authority’s designated FOI address should go requests are being received by more than one person at any given time in order for government entities to facilitate rather than hinder transparency at the very start of the process.
See copy of the report below.
Garbage piles up by government building
(CNS): Further technical problems with the Department of Environmental Health’s garbage truck fleet led to a growing and unsightly pile of rubbish under the nose of government this week. The garbage was piled up in Humber Lane just yards from the Government Administration Building and it took a picture sent in by a CNS reader to gain some attention and have it collected. The snap taken at around 9am Tuesday morning was sent to the health minister and senior civil servants, which led to the trash finally being taken away.
Drugs dominate stop & search
(CNS): Under section 41 of the police law, officers from the RCIPS have considerable powers to stop and search members of the public if they randomly decide a person may be carrying drugs, weapons or stolen goods, among other issues. Here in the Cayman Islands, an FOI request by CNS has revealed that ‘stop and searches’ carried out by RCIPs officers are dominated by suspicion over drugs but only 3% result in an arrest for an offence. In the UK police forces are coming under increasing pressure to review stop and search policies as figures there have also revealed that the policy is ineffectual in combating crime, that it is fuelled by prejudice and undermines police and community relationships.
The police in the Cayman Islands have the power to stop and search anyone if officers can state that they had a reasonable suspicion that an individual was in possession of drugs or weapons, among other items, but the 3% conversion rate demonstrates that those suspicions are rarely correct.
The FOI revealed that in 2013 officers from the various units of the RCIPS made 175 stop and searches as defined under section 41 of the law. Of those, 144 were based on drug suspicions, 14 were based on intelligence, eight merely because the people were considered suspicious, four on the basis of prohibited articles, three on suspicion of carrying stolen goods and just two as a result of suspicion over possession of firearms. Police confirmed, however, that just three percent of those people stopped were arrested, calling into question the use of the policy.
A spokesperson for the RCIPS explained that police officers also stop people for various targeted reasons which do not fall under the ‘stop and search’ policy but these more targeted stops result in a better conversion rate of arrest. During 2013 the police made 440 arrests as a result of vehicle stops for various reasons, which ranged from outstanding warrants, license plates identified at crime scenes, vehicle defects and other direct evidence.
“In addition to the section 41 stop and search powers there are multiple other powers conferred in law that would allow a person or vehicle to be stopped,” the police spokesperson told CNS in relation to the release of figures.
In these cases the stop and search is more focused and the suspicion is usually backed by evidence and intelligence,leading, more often than is the case with random stop and searches, to police actually apprehending criminals rather than allegations of harassment.
In the UK the stop and search policy has been heavily criticised as the conversion rates, although better than in Cayman, are also very low and the policy has been labelled as racist.
Earlier this year, Home Secretary Theresa May pledged to tighten rules on stop-and-search amid warnings that as many as 250,000 searches a year may have been illegal. UK politicians have also suggested that police officers carrying out stop and searches should wear body cameras to crack down on abuse.
Minimum wage needs work
(CNS): The president of the Chamber of Commerce has said that while the organization backs the concept, it won’t back the implementation of a national minimum wage until government forms a workable policy based on credible research and reasoning. Urging government to release a white paper clearly outlining the proposals and objectives, Johann Moxam said there are many issues that will need to be addressed, from enforcement to how helpers will be treated under the law before the government is in a position to introduce and set the level for a minimum wage that can work.
Although Moxam has said the Chamber membership supports the principle of a minimum wage, its recently published position paper on the issue seems to take a very reluctant position and Moxam himself was less than enthusiastic about the government’s ability to get the policy right when he spoke to CNS.
“The Chamber understands that the political mandate of this government is to implement minimum wage legislation. However, before such a decision is made or finalized we encourage the government to look at the issue holistically, proceed cautiously and ask itself several questions outlined in our position paper,” he said.
Although the PPM government campaigned for a minimum wage during the run up to the 2013 general election and marked it as an early priority in the party’s manifesto, Tara River, the current employment minister who ran on the Coalition for Cayman ticket, did not campaign for its introduction and was understood to oppose the principle. During a debate in the Legislative Assembly in February on a private members motion to introduce a basic rate of $5 and get the legislation on the statute books and then gradually increase it, Rivers rejected the paper brought by Ezzard Miller.
She said the ministry was establishing a committee and researching the issue and needed data on which to base the policy.
According to sources close to the committee, despite having been mandated to work on this issue for more than seven months, the government still does not have comprehensive data on the issue, including how many local workers would be impacted or how it would be enforced.
The Chamber boss also said that the organisation has not seen any statistical information about the issue and queried where was the relevant data from all sectors of the work force, especially tourism and hospitality, construction, retail, the service industry, security companies, labour intensive industries, domestic workers and other jobs that will be impacted to inform the policy.
Moxam told CNS that he had concerns about the enforcement because if government cannot police the policy the problem of importing cheap labour will persist.
“One of the biggest issues will be enforcement and who will do the enforcing once a minimum wage is implemented. Will that be a separate agency or will it fall to the NWDA or Immigration? “ Moxam asked. “Both those agencies are already stretched and arguably underperforming when it comes to their current remits so government really needs to think about this and many other issues before it goes ahead and implements the basic wage. We are a long way from the place we want to be are there not enough answers. At the moment we don’t know what we want to do or how we are going to achieve it.”
The president said the Chamber’s position paper has listed the issues that the organisation’s members, many of whom will be impacted by the introduction, feel have to be addressed before the law is passed. He also warned government that it is an economic policy issue that should not be politicised.
“This matter is too important to politicize. The Ministry of Labour and government have to guard against playing politics with this issue. Is this being contemplated to appease one's conscience or truly help Caymanians?” Moxam asked as he called on government to spell out how the policy will help local people.
Although Moxam may believe that a minimum wage should not be political, it is a political issue as its introduction around the world in democracies is motivated by a desire to prevent exploitation of low wage earners by employers. It has never been warmly welcomed by business or right of centre politicians who support the power of the market place.
In Cayman supporters say the introduction of a minimum wage will help local people as it should reduce the amount of cheap labour being imported. With security guards, janitors, gardeners and other low wage earners known in some cases being paid well under $5 on hour, if employers are forced to pay those workers a liveable wage, local people could take on those jobs and stop what many say is the importation of poverty.
Nevertheless, the Chamber says government must examine the other issues surrounding the introduction and the overall size of the problem they are seeking to remedy before passing the law.
“It is important that government understands the tipping point for businesses and all households with the introduction of a national minimum wage,” he said. “This entire discussion is too important for the country, economy and people to get wrong so let's remove the emotional and political rhetoric from the discussion and ensure this decision is grounded in facts and we are clear with the objectives behind it."
In the end it is the rate at which the wageis set that will determine how much support the policy will get from the business community or workers. Too low and it will fail to address the problem of cheap labour but too high and business will not support it and will seek ways to either avoid complying or pass on the costs to the consumer in an inflated economy where the ordinary man in the street already carries a significant financial burden for propping up government as well as the business community.
See the Chamber's full position paper on the minimum wage below.
Related video on CNS Business: Dialogue before minimum wage, Moxam urges
Health officials continue to monitor diseases
(CNS): With the continuing outbreak of Ebola virus in West Africa and the regional spread of chikungunya virus medical officials and stakeholders met at the Cayman Islands hospital for the second time on Wednesday, 13 August, for a general update on issues relating to the two diseases. While Ebola poses considerably less of a threat the spread of chikungunya in the Caribbean is of concern locally but so far Cayman has contained its limited exposure to the disease. Since the first case in June just five cases have been confirmed and only one patient is suspected of contracting the disease locally.
According to the public health department 19 suspected cases have been investigated and bold samples sent for testing. Nine of those have been negative, one inconclusive and four results remain outstanding in addition to the five positive cases. Regionally there are some 7,894 cases of chikungunya with more than a half million suspected cases being reported. Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted to humans by the bite of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, similar to dengue. Symptoms include fever, severe joint and muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash.
Local health officials are remaining vigilant about the potential spread of the disease and following up on the recent meeting officials said public health experts will also be meeting with border control personnel to establish a best practice approach to ensuring the continued containment of the chikungunya virus at portsand airports. They will also discuss pro-active, preventative and protective public health measures, following a recent global advisory on Ebola. Although that disease is unlikely to prove a threat to the Cayman Islands with more than 190 nationalities living in Cayman and hundreds of thousands of visitors to our shores every day from air and sea monitoring the potential risks remains important.
Medical Officer of Health, Dr Kiran Kumar, issued an advisory on Ebola at the beginning of August following international concern over the ongoing outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The disease is a rare but a serious viral infection that affects humans and animals such as monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees.
Meanwhile, the containment of chikungunya has been assisted by the mosquito control measures and the public’s efforts to keep yards clear of standing water which is the breeding ground for the urban mosquito the Aedes aegypti which carries the disease. Health Minister, Osbourne Bodden stressed the importance of removing anything that might hold standing water from around their properties, as well as wearing protective clothing and mosquito repellent.
“I am relieved to know that protocols are in place to treat and handle any infected persons,” the minister said this week. “Should any person appear ill, I encourage all front line customer service staff to be vigilant and ask pertinent questions in a diplomatic way.”
To determine if the country you are travelling has chikungunya or Ebola, please contact the Public Health Department at 244-2648. Travellers to such countries are advised to consult a physician should they develop symptoms on return. For more information on both viruses, visit www.carpha.org or www.cdc.org
Lionfish CULL attacks reef pest
(CNS): Divers removed 579 lionfish with a total weight of more than 250 pounds from Cayman Islands reefs this weekend during the third lionfish tournament this year organized by CULL (Cayman United Lionfish League). Sixty scuba divers and free divers in 13 teams signed up for Cull #12 Summer Showdown to help get rid of the invasive and voracious fish and compete for the cash prizes on offer, according to the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, which supports the effort towards helping Cayman's underwater ecosystem. Afterwards, the reef pests were cooked up by the chefs at Rackams, who provided delectable sautéed lionfish on garlic crostinis. (See related video below)
This tournament saw CULL team up with ‘Culling For A Cause’ to sponsor ARK (Act of Random Kindness) by donating the remainder of the fish to the cause to retain the profits. One of the teams was even so generous to donate their own prize winnings to this noble cause.
Rackams again provided the headquarters for this tournament and registration took place on Thursday 14 August. The weigh-ins on Saturday and Sunday evening allowed teams to have their prize catches weighed and measured before being cooked up by the chefs at Rackams who provided delectable sautéed lionfish on garlic crostinis.
Gold sponsor Foster’s Food Fair donated $4,800 in cash prizesand $500 was awarded to each first place winner and $100 for each second place in four separate categories for both Scuba Diving and Free Diving divisions:
Scuba Divers:
• Most Lionfish:
– 1st Place – Ambassador Divers – 130
– 2nd Place – Team Lisa – 72
• Biggest Lionfish
– 1st Place – Ambassador Divers – 294mm
– 2nd Place – Hog Heaven – 293mm
• Smallest Lionfish
– 1st Place – Ball & Chain – 54mm
– 2nd Place – Ambassador Divers – 58mm
• Overall Weight
– 1st Place – Ambassador Divers – 32.2kg
– 2nd Place –Culling For A Cause – 13.6kg
Free Divers:
• Most Lionfish:
– 1st Place – Green Water – 130
– 2nd Place – Cayman Deep – 42
• Biggest Lionfish
– 1st Place – Cayman Deep – 304mm
– 2nd Place – Green Water – 297mm
• Smallest Lionfish
– 1st Place – Green Water – 49mm
– 2nd Place – Green Water – 60mm
• Overall Weight
– 1st Place – Green Water – 14.8kg
– 2nd Place – Cayman Deep – 9.4kg
New CITA Executive Director, Tiffany Dixon-Ebanks, said, “CITA is pleased to lend support to initiatives that will lead to the eradication of the Lionfish from our pristine waters. We would certainly like to extend congratulations to the CULL team for another successful event – good job! The CITA also extends thanks to Foster’s Food Fair for their generous sponsorship of this very worthy cause.”
The Cayman United Lionfish League thanked all sponsors who made this tournament possible, especially Foster’s Food Fair, as well as CITA, Rackam’s Waterfront Bar & Grill, Ambassador Divers, Vibe 98.9, Spin 94.9, DoE, Signs of Paradise and Monogram’s and More.
See CNS Library entry: Lionfish problem
Related video on CNS Business:
Barbadian community seeking honourable men
(CNS): In a bid to let those men who are making a positive difference in the community know they are important the Honorary Consul to Barbados in the Cayman Islands is sponsoring a Man of the Year Award and will at the same time raise funds for the local Boy Scouts. People are asked to nominate men living in Cayman who have made outstanding voluntary contributions and community service or a significant contribution to Barbadian or Caymanian cultural and social activities in the Cayman Islands. Organisers said men who are role models, or have made contributions to education, the arts, sports, medicine, humanities or who have inspired others to better serve their community can all be nominated.
All nominations will be reviewed by an independent panel and shortlisted candidates will be put forward for election. Nominees do not need to be from Barbados but must reside in Cayman and nominations must be submitted before 26 September via post or email at: Man of the Year Award, P.O. Box 203, Grand Cayman KY1-1501, email: CaymanEvents4You@gmail.com
The Awards will be presented at the Barbados Independence & Thanksgiving Dinner On 28th November at the Wharf Restaurant with guest speaker Delores Callender-Taylor from the Unleash Ministries in Canada.
See nomination flyer and form below
Local athletes begin competition at Youth Olympics
(CNS): Cayman’s five athletes are getting down to work in China at the 2nd edition of the Youth Olympic Games being held in Najing. Cayman is represented in athletics, equestrian, gymnastics and sailing. Following the opening ceremony on Saturday when sailor Florence Allan carried the flag for the Cayman Islands among more than 200 represented nations, Morgan Lloyd (left) was the first of team Cayman to compete. Lloyd achieved personal best results in the floor exercise and the vault in the women’s all-around gymnastic competition with a total score of 41.250 a substantial improvement from her previous personal best of 39.334.
The sailing competition kicked off on Monday but with little wind to work with, in the Men's Byte CII Pablo Bertran placed 19th in race 1 and 27th in race 2. Florence Allan placed 9th and 25th respectively in the Women's Byte CII races. On the second day Bertran and Allan, sailed conservatively and Bertran now sits 26th in the men’s and Allan 21st in the female fleet. She said. “It’s a really good competition. I’m having loads of fun and it’s really cool to meet everybody and have a really good competition.”
Bertran’s who was injured before the games said he had returned to the boat for the first time for the games.
“I was pushing my knees and every day I wore it down. It was not so much hiking in the boat, just overuse and pushing it. It was injured a week out before and the first time I sailed after that was here in China,” he added. Bertran also fought hard for position in the light breeze on Lake Jinniu, 70km out of Nanjing and finished 20th and 22nd in the day’s two races.
Polly Serpell who is riding Georgio Zan, an 8 year old Belgium warm blood horse in the Equestrian events began her team competition today with regional riders in an event that will take place over two days, with the individual jumping event following a rest period, starting on 23 August.
Serpell is the first equestrian to represent the Cayman Islands at the Youth Olympics and despite sitting her exams this summer she has been training intensively with friends lending her their horses for her to gain as much borrowed horse experience as possible. Serpell has had three days training on the horse she is riding at the competition.
Pearl Morgan will be running the 200m on Friday 22 August with the heats starting at 20:35 (CST). She will also be a part of a mixed 8x100m relay on 26 August at 16:00. The young athlete said training has been going well and training sessions at the Olympic stadium started today to allow the young sprinter to focus on starts and the stadium environment.
Alongside their training and competition the young people take part in a number of cultural and education programmes covering healthy cooking, environmental protection, digital media, agriculture and the Olympic Journey.
Reporter Jade Webster was also sent to Nanjing to take part in the Young Reporter’s programme which she described as amazing
In the first few days Webster said she has written athletic profiles on past Olympians, attended guest speaker sessions with the President of the International Olympic Committee himself and represented the Young Reporters Programme at a press conference, where she spoke about her passion of becoming a better journalists. This week she will be attending intensive training courses in all fields of journalism (Magazine Editoials, Broadcast, Text and Social Media), with mentors from around the world, including CCN Journalist Tracey Holmes, Photographer Nick Didlick and Head of the IOC Media Operations Anthony Edgar.
Webster is staying at the Youth Olympic village with the athletes, normally journalists wouldn't be allowed to stay in the village, so this is a rare and fortunate opportunity.
"This is the real deal, this is no 'mini Olympics'” she added.
Local netballers vie for place in Aussie 2015 world cup
CNS):The Cayman women’s national netball team set off for Canada on Friday ahead of the Americas Federation of Netball Associations Regional Qualifying Championship in Calgary, Alberta. The women will be playing against the best netballers in the region to vie for a spot in the 2015 World Netball Championships in Australia. Katherine Gow, said the team had been training hard and looked forward to playing their best in the competition.
The team were given a send-off by the governor at the airport who said, “We are very proud of you and we will be rooting for you.”
Fire crews still dousing smouldering dump
CNS): Officials from the fire station confirmed Monday evening that five fire fighters were stillat the George Town dump attending to the smouldering debris after a fully-fledged landfill fire on Sunday morning. The fire service also offered “a multitude of thanks” to some local business owners who provided breakfast and dinner to the twelve members of the fire service on duty through Sunday and Monday who were tackling the blaze. Garry Rutty owner of Burger King, Judy Wight from Pizza Hut and Dave and Martha Crawford from Crawford Electrics generously helped to keep up the fire fighters’ collective strength by ensuring they were fed during their battle with the dump blaze.
Given the volatile nature of the landfill fire officials said that the dump would continue to be saturated and while there was no longer any sign of smoke the crews would continue to focus on the original area of ignition throughout Monday night to be sure.