Politics
C4C slams public spending
(CNS): The Coalition for Cayman has taken aim at the government’s budget and accused it of tinkering around the edges rather than restoring stability and prudence to public finances as the PPM administration has claimed. The C4C chair, James Bergstrom, has written a letter to the media which attacks the number as well as the pay and benefits of the civil service and criticises government for not cutting spending by anything like enough or reducing taxes as it said it would. Despite having one of its own endorsed candidates working closely with the finance minister and another in the Cabinet, the C4C, which still insists it is not a party, is continuing to press the privatization agenda without indicating exactly what government should divest.
The C4C suggests that all government has to do is encourage the existing civil servants in unspecified departments, which it refers to as non-essential services, to set up companies, which will then provide those services to government.
For those public servants that don’t transition into entrepreneurs and business owners, the NWDA, which still has a long way to go before it is fit for purpose, should help the displaced workers find work by coordinating with work permit jobs. If those former government employees don’t like the new private sector jobs they are offered, then they are on their own.
The Coalition also thinks that civil servants’ health care and benefits should be cut in line with the private sector and that social welfare payments should also be reduced.
Citing its founding principles, the coalition chair said people should help themselves and their dependents and not take hand-outs. Making it quite clear on what side of the political spectrum the group is sitting, Bergstrom said that social assistance has increased 12%, which he thinks is far too much.
“The whole programme of social assistance by the government needs to be reviewed and restructured so that it is designed to provide a hand up rather than a hand out, be monitored and in most cases finite and properly directed to our most vulnerable,” he wrote.
The group takes aim at government debt, growing expenses, which it says need to be cut by a further $100 million, the cash paid into statutory authorities and also states that government should roll back fees in the financial services sector in particular. The C4C calls for the re-centralization of government services and questions why nothing is being done to prepare for the government’s debt bonds, which are coming due in the not too distant future.
Despite having three people who were endorsed as C4C candidates now sitting on the government benches, the Coalition implies that government has done nothing to address the problem of the size of government and how much it spends in the less than nine months since it was elected and points to the Miller-Shaw report as the guide that the Progressives should follow.
See C4C’s position on government’s 2013/14 budget in full below.
HARDtalk broadcast set
(CNS): The people of Cayman will have their first chance to see the premier go face to face with the BBC's Stephen Sackur on HARDtalk late Monday night. The much anticipated broadcast of the interview with Alden Mclaughlin on the flagship news interview show will air at 11.30pm on Monday 10 February local time and then again at 4:30am, 11:30am and then again at 4:30pm on Tuesday 11 February on BBC World News. Video clips will also be available on line, where a full audio version will be accessible on iPlayer or as a podcast. McLaughlin was said by his staff to have done Cayman proud answering questions about the country's offshore sector and the tax haven label, among other issues.
Rivers: $20k UK trip yields ‘tremendous information’
(CNS): Education and Employment Minister Tara Rivers declared her recent trip to London with her political colleague Winston Connolly and two senior civil servants as a huge success. According to information supplied by the ministry, the visit to the World Education Forum and various UK meetings cost CI$19,829.81. Flights totalled CI$8,409.65 while hotel accommodations was CI$6,235.33, transport was CI$436.09 and the per diems for the group totalled CI$4,300. The ministry also contributed CI$448.75 to a dinner meeting with CEO’s of Education Trusts.
Education ministry Chief Officer Mary Rodrigues and Deputy Chief Officer DrTasha Ebanks Garcia accompanied Rivers and Connolly to the forum, which is the largest gathering of education and skills ministers in the world. The team also hosted a reception for Caymanian students studying in the UK, met with ministers and lords responsible for education and employment in Britain and visited three high performing schools in the London area. In addition, the delegation went to publicly and privately operated job centres working to tackle unemployment.
They met with policy advisors of a leading “think tank” to discuss issues related to education and welfare-to-work programmes, as well as the Secretariat of the Low Pay Commission. This is an independent agency established by the UK government in the late 1990’s to advise on the introduction of a national minimum wage. Rivers said she gained valuable information to assist her in the work to improve the Cayman Islands education system and the services provided by the National Workforce Development Agency.
“The Education World Forum highlighted the fact that the challenges related to education, the appropriate use of technology as a tool to facilitate learning and skills development in general for the 21st century are global challenges,” said the minister.
“Participating in the Education World Forum provided a great opportunity to meet, network with and hear from other education ministers from around the world on the system challenges they face and the solutions they have found,” Rivers stated in a release from the ministry. “It was also very informative to hear from leading international experts and corporations in the fields of education and technology, who discussed and debated the latest pedagogical changes and educational reform strategies used in some of the world’s most effective education systems and schools. ”
She said the range of meetings held during and after to the forum on education, employment and labour topics were also very informative and helpful.
“The meetings provided an amazing opportunity to amass a tremendous amount of information relevant to the local education and employment initiatives that I have been driving since taking office. We have also made many useful contacts, in both government and non-governmental organisations, on which we will continue to draw,” Rivers added.
The ministry said it would release further details about the outcomes of the trip in the coming weeks.
Piers would allow cruise visitors to take more tours
(CNS Business): Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell told CNS Business on today’s video clip that if Grand Cayman had cruise ship piers, this would give visitors time to take more than one tour when they stop here. The economic benefit for the Caymanian people would be “very huge” because they would allow the cruise ships to stay longer in George Town. “This coming year we will have 1.7 million people arrive. That means you have 1.7 million people who want one tour. If you have the piers, because they stay longer, we’ll have 1.7 million people that can purchase two tours per day. So the piers actually allow you to double the income that’s available from tours that come into the country.” Read more and comment on CNS Business
Premier ‘made Cayman proud’, officials claim
(CNS): The Cayman Islands premier did an “excellent job” when he faced Stephen Sackur yesterday in London on BBC’s HARDtalk, according to Cabinet Secretary Samuel Rose and Senior Political Advisor Roy Tatum. How well he did will be plain for all to see when the show airs but officials say they have not yet been given a broadcast date for the flagship news interview show, which is broadcast on BBC television, radio and the internet. Alden McLaughlin agreed to give the interview to the programme in which the host is known to ask difficult and awkward questions and previous guestshave walk out of the studio. However, his staff said McLaughlin did Cayman proud.
Answering questions about the Cayman Islands and overseas territories and the tax haven label, his interview followed the premier’s appearance at Chatham House, where he gave one of two keynote addresses at a conference regarding global corruption and financial crime.
CNS will be keeping a close eye on the HARDtalk website for indications of the broadcast dates and will post the information as soon as it is available.
Corruption not just offshore issue, says premier
(CNS Business): Addressing an international conference on global corruption, Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin indicated that offshore centres are unfairly targeted. While Cayman has benefited in many ways from the spotlight, the country “is review fatigued”, he said, emphasising that in order to effectively tackle the issue, every country – onshore and offshore – must be subject to the same scrutiny because if the focus remains on select jurisdictions, the financial criminals will simply move elsewhere. This truth, he suggested, was inconvenient for “political candidates who are looking for a scapegoat for mismanaged public finances" and for some news media "that operate more as entertainers than purveyors of the truth”. Read more on CNS Business
Mac slams FACTA agreements with US and UK
(CNS Business): The former premier of the Cayman Islands has said that he would not have signed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) agreement with the United States or the similar deal which the Cayman government has signed with the UK had he retained power. McKeeva Bush, now the opposition leader, said that the deals extend the tax laws of both the US and the UK to other countries and that cannot be right. He said both the agreements that the current administration has signed give no benefits to Cayman, which already complies with all international treaties. Bush said that he had told the UK treasury officials when he was in London in 2012 that he would not sign the deals and warned that these agreements would “come back to bite us”. Read more on CNS Business
Ethics law sails through LA
(CNS): In a day long debate in which most members of the Legislative Assembly spoke, the Standards in Public Life bill sailed through its second reading in parliament on Thursday with the unanimous backing of all members present. Welcomed by the politicians as a way of restoring public confidence in government and giving substance to the idea of good governance, the bill will impact all those who hold senior posts or positions of responsibility in government and board members in government companies and statutory authorities. By June of this year the details of assets, business interests and potential conflicts of those who make decisions about public money will need to be public.
Presented by Premier Alden McLaughlin, the long awaited bill was presented twice to the previous UDP Cabinet but was not acted upon.
“The Bill will have far reaching positive consequences for the reputation of the Cayman Islands and the affairs of government,” McLaughlin said. He added that it was a PPM campaign promise to pass the legislation and the law was one of several the country had developed to support the institutions of democracy as set out in the constitution.
The bill received cross-party support for its second reading but legislators will continue working on the bill Friday when it is scrutinized at the committee stage, where a number of amendments, which also appear to have the wide support of all members, will be addressed before the bill has its third reading, when it will be formally passed.
As well as being welcomed by the members, who mostly agreed that it would help to restore the people’s trust and confidence in politicians, the deputy governor welcomed the bill and said the civil service was ready for it.
Franz Manderson said it would shine a light over the civil service and promote transparency. He said that government employees understand they have to, and were committed to, abide by the new law. Acknowledging allegations that senior civil servants make decisions to further their interests, he said the bill made it clear that was not possible. However, if someone believed a decision was being made to further a person’s own benefit, they could check the public register, which will be on the commission’s website, and then make a complaint.
Manderson also welcomed the whistleblower protection, as he said that not being able to provide that protection had been a shortcoming for the civil service because people were reluctant to come forward.
Ethics law should apply to governor, says Bush
(CNS): The opposition leader has said that the Standards in Public Life legislation should apply to those who hold the office of governor as well as all other public servants. Offering his support Thursday for the legislation during the debate on the long awaited ethics bill, McKeeva Bush told his legislative colleagues that while the constitution may bar lawmakers from directing that the governor declare “his” interests (as he made a pointed reference to the former incumbent) the governor ought to make a report to the Legislative Assembly about how he spends money and what he receives.
The opposition leader said the governor earns more than anyone else and receives significant benefits and allowances. Bush said “he” is allowed to accept gifts, hospitality and “spend public money entertaining his friends at Government House”, as he referred to Duncan Taylor. Bush said that whatever the constitution states, the governor should be held accountable as he also appoints people to boards and commissions, whom legislators cannot remove, and has significant influence.
He noted that the governor is the only senior person in public life that the law will not apply to and that was not right. Bush added that in the interest of fairness and transparency the governor should be accountable. “We can’t force it but they should do so and we should receive that report as members of this House,” the opposition leader said.
One of the last members to speak in the debate on yet another historic bill for the new government, which lasted all day, Bush offered support on behalf of the opposition. He said the bill repealed the register of interests law, which had been the only legislation of this kind and which he had piloted through the Legislative Assembly. He said that then, as now, he felt it was something that could only contribute and preserve public confidence in the system, as he described it as a foundation piece of legislation. The new bill was a continuation of that, he said.
In a mixed presentation in which Bush welcomed the law, he spoke about the hatred and jealousy that members would face regardless and lamented the past suspicions that have historically surrounded members who acquired homes and cars. He said no matter what law was in place, it would not “stop evil minded people” from making unfounded allegations. He said politicians would always be targeted, regardless of legislation.
Referring to the ability for people to report to the commission, he said the authorities had to ensure that whatever was being said about anyone was “said with facts” and not political vendettas or other vindictive reasons. “Perception is one thing, while fact will be fact,” he added.
In support of the law the leader of the opposition said, “We operate a democratic system and we must always be concerned about the efficacy and integrity of the political system.” When people were elected they gave up their private life to serve the public and had to understand they would be scrutinized, he said.
He welcomed the scrutiny and the need for board appointees to declare their relevant interests as well as politicians but said that while there was a need to strength democracy, they could not make it “so you can’t get anything done”. As a small jurisdiction the government had to be careful of not being able to find “good people to work” on the boards because they would be “scared to have their names smeared”, he said and queried what kind of democracy that would be.
Bush said he had always declared everything he had in the register of interests and despite all the investigating and the allegations he endured, he had never hidden any money or assets in anyone’s name or in any companies.
Bush is facing several charges relating to corruption, abuse of office and the misuse of government credit cards relating to his time as premier. Several theft charges have been dropped for lack of evidence and despite ongoing probes into otherissues, no further charges have been brought against the opposition leader, who ran for office at the height of the probe into his time as premier and was still returned with a significant percentage of the vote by his West Bay constituents. Bush has categorically denied all of the allegations and said he will be vindicated when he has his day in court. He is currently set to stand trial in September.
LA adjourned early, ethics debate set for Thursday
(CNS): Government managed to get through only a limited amount of business Wednesday since the speaker was unable to attend the Legislative Assembly as a result of illness. Although Anthony Eden, the deputy speaker, was able to step in for the morning, a funeral appointment in his constituency prevented him from presiding over the afternoon session, leading to an adjournment before members began the much anticipated debate on the new Standards in Public Life Bill. That is now expected to be dealt with on Thursday. Three private members motions dealing with a minimum wage, the introduction of 'one man, one vote' and changes to the customs law will also now be pushed to another sitting.
Despite a packed order paper, government only managed to lay a few reports on the table, deal with just one parliamentary question and pass amendments to the police law and the criminal procedure code as a result of the early adjournment. Two government motions regarding a rezoning application and Cayman’s latest tax information exchange deals were also left unaddressed.
During the briefing debate on the police bill, following the explanation from Attorney General Samuel Bulgin that the law had to be amended to make it compatible with the Bill of Rights, the member for North Side raised concerns over the constant legislative changes to help the police without any results.
Ezzard Miller said he would support the change but he questioned what was happening, as every time he saw the news judges were throwing out cases because of incompetence somewhere along the line from the police or prosecutors. He said just about every law that could be amended had been to help combat crime but it was still increasing. Miller said legislators had to believe that what they were doing was helping. While he said he was prepared to vote for the change, government must look at what is happening in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and with the police to give people some assurance that it is not a case of incompetence driving all the legislative changes.
“Every time we are here we seem to be amending the law to help the police but my community has no police and the criminals are running wild,” he added.
Meanwhile, his colleague Arden McLean, the independent member for East End, also voiced concerns and queried how government could implement the Constitution and a year later pass a police law that was incompatible with it, as he pointed the finger at the Attorney General. He said many times he and other members of the LA have brought potential anomalies to the attention of the official member but as they were not lawyers their concerns were not listened to. But here they were again, having to amend laws because the ones that were supposed to know weren’t getting it right. McLean said it was the AG's responsibility to ensure the laws conform to the constitution.
Premier Alden McLaughlin spoke briefly on the issue and said the Constitution was working as expected and that there was no way that any government could expect not to find some circumstances where incompatibility would occur. He pointed out how old the US constitution is and yet the laws still face constant challenges in the courts there.
The AG also dismissed the comments from the independent members and said that jurisprudence was evolving and as such there would always be a need to amend laws to ensure constitutional compatibility.