Politics
Bush calls for enquiry
(CNS): Following a not guilty verdict after a four week trial into allegations of abuse of his government credit card, the former premier has called for a public enquiry into the circumstances of his case. McKeeva Bush, now the opposition leader, had claimed he was the subject of a political witch hunt, and despite revelations during the trial that he had used his CIG card to withdraw cash to gamble in casinos, it also became apparent from a series of emails that the former governor, Duncan Taylor, had gone further than would be expected to see Bush charged. Bush told CNS after his acquittal that he wanted a public enquiry and Premier Alden McLaughlin has lent his support to that call from Bush.
Outside the courthouse, which was crowded with friends and family, the opposition leader was clearly relieved and emotional about the verdict. He said that he would be taking advice from his attorneys about what happened next, but given all of the circumstances, he said there had to be an enquiry.
"Obviously, I will be guided by my attorneys but they will hear him in Westminster; it cannot stop here," he said, referring to Geoffrey Cox QC who is a government back-bencher in the UK parliament.
In a short statement he pointed to what had been described as a witch hunt during the trial.
“The events which have occurred evidenced abuses of power by UK appointed officials, which unfortunately continue to reoccur in our Islands; and hopefully in the near future the necessary checks and balances will be restored,” he said. “We need to re-establish the partnership between the Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom, which existed on the basis of mutual trust, cooperation, clarity of purpose, and I stand ready and willing to participate in that process.”
Bush described the situation in Cayman as “a police state” as he spoke of concerns over how the investigations of him over the last three years were conducted.
The opposition leader said he planned to spend time with his family over the next few days but would be embarking on a series of public meetings over the next week around the islands and was planning on making a statement to the country on television Thursday evening.
Meanwhile, following his State of the Nation address at the Chamber of Commerce lunch, Premier Alden McLaughlin said he had every confidence in the local justice system and the jury had delivered their verdict, which should be respected. However, McLaughlin told CNS that he fully supported the opposition leader’s call for a full public enquiry into the circumstances of the case and how the investigation was conducted.
The current governor, Helen Kilpatrick, declined to comment and the office said in an email response to CNS’ enquiry: “The Governor’s Office will not be commenting on the verdict of the former Premier’s trial. The verdict is a matter for the courts of the Cayman Islands.”
CNS has also contacted the FCO and the former governor for comment but has not received any responses to the enquiries.
In the prepared statement that Bush gave to the press in the wake of the verdict, he said once again that he had done nothing wrong. He said that he had been the “most investigated person in the Western Hemisphere” because over the last three years the authorities had probed every aspect of his life since he was a teenager.
“They took my bank accounts, my business documents, my travel records, my credit cards, taped my phones, monitored my communications … and they have been unable to find anything that I have done which is unlawful.”
He added that his opponents “who participated in the conspiracy and encouraged it for the purposes of removing me from my democratically elected position as Premier have used all their conspiratorial ammunition.”
Bush made no comment about the use of his government credit card or about the public revelations regarding the extent of his gambling and the amount of money the evidence showed he had lost in slot machines over the 45 days that were the focus of the crown’s case against him.
See Bush's prepared statement below.
Constitution clean-up due
(CNS): The fifth anniversary of the implementation of the Cayman Islands Constitution 2009 is next month, and the premier has revealed that at least 40 changes have been identified by the constitutional commission that need to be made. However, Alden McLaughlin said most of them are minor and unsubstantial, dealing with matters of clarity. They could, he added, all be made with the agreement of the opposition leader and the members of the parliament without the need for a national vote. The country’s leader said that his administration would not be entertaining a referendum on any substantial constitutional changes as he did not want the distraction of a potential polarized debate.
In the Legislative Assembly last month, McLaughlin said he was waiting on a report from the commission, as he responded to a private members motion brought by the independent member for North Side, Ezzard Miller, proposing a select committee review of the constitution followed by a government referendum on any identified changes.
McLaughlin said the commission, which is now chaired by David Ritch, had been reviewing the constitution and so he did not think it was the right time for a review by the LA. The premier said the report would be widely circulated and he hoped the politicians could all agree on the potential changes recommended by the commission as well as any more non-substantial changes members felt were necessary that would not impact the balance of power between the Cayman Government and the UK or the construct of constitution.
The premier asked Miller to wait on the report and see if all the members could agree on a laundry list. He said government would not initiate a referendum on constitutional change during this term, as he described a national poll as a “huge distraction” that he was “not prepared to entertain”.
Miller agreed to withdraw his motion but noted that if there were recommendations coming from the commission that would improve good governance, the government should not dodge a potential referendum because it was inconvenient or difficult.
The North Side member had listed a number of changes he believed needed to be addressed, including formalizing the position of councellors, removing the post of financial secretary, limiting all constitutional positions to five years and removing 'for life' appointments, as well as clarifying the qualifications for potential MLAs.
He said there needed to be some way of preventing the governor from appointing the premier or opposition leader if they are under investigation for a crime as well as a recall clause for members not serving their constituents.
Miller also said that a review by the LA would, “if nothing else”, make the members “familiar with it after going through it clause by clause.”
Chamber sweats labour rights
(CNS): The Chamber of Commerce appears to be concerned that the employment minister’s plans to change the Labour Law giving employees more rights will increase the cost of doing business for their members. Tara Rivers said her ministry is proposing some 80 changes to the law, several of which are designed to protect workers, including a boost in severance pay for those laid off from their jobs and better compensation for wrongfully dismissed workers. Tara Rivers told her legislative colleagues that the proposed amendments would be put out for public consultation later this year but the Chamber is already worried that it could mean tougher times for bosses.
The Chamber has been blamed in the past for blocking improvements in protection for workers and once again the organisation which represents some 700 local businesses has said it wants to evaluate whether any of the amendments will lead to a higher cost of doing business or more red tape.
Johann Moxam, the Chamber president, has written to Rivers regarding her plans asking to see the proposals as he said labour matters remain a top issue for the members.
“Many businesses continue to face high costs and the challenge of obtaining the required skilled local labour to grow their businesses. If the cost of doing business continues to increase to a level which makes it unprofitable then good paying jobs will be lost or outsourced to other jurisdictions with lower costs, less bureaucracy and where businesses are welcomed,” Moxam said.
Offering support to the enforcement of existing workplace legislation, he said imposing higher fines and penalties is only effective if the system of enforcement and prosecutions is robust.
But the minister pointed out during a debate in the Legislative Assembly last month that the current law is inadequate and has not seen a significant overhaul for some ten years. The LA debate was on a private member’s motion brought by the independent member for East End, Arden McLean calling for firms laying off Caymanians to be required to notify and justify redundancies to the labour and immigration authorities.
The motion, which received government support, was triggered by what is alleged to be a number of lay-offs of local workers at the Morritts Tortuga Club resort in East End, a member of the Chamber. It is understood that the local workers who lost their jobs believe their posts were filled with permit holders — an issue which is now before the labour authorities. Despite being praised by government recently for its commitment to employing Caymanians, according to the local MLA, the new management at the resort appears to have made an about face.
McLean also wanted to see an increase in the compensation given to wrongfully dismissed workers, an issue which the minister backed when she said that the current requirement to pay just one-week for each year worked in unfair dismissal or redundancy was not fair and changes to the law would see it increased.
Rivers said there had been more than 200 cases of unfair terminations to the Labour Appeals Tribunal over the last year.
Privatization will cost more
(CNS): The independent member for North Side has said that the privatization of the public sector will cost users of government services more and that he was disappointed that the Ernst and Young report hasn’t spelt that out to the public. Ezzard Miller pointed out that the delivery of former government services once taken over by the private sector will be driven by profit and there will be no opportunity for subsidy from government and consumers will feel the pinch. He said unless the services to be privatize are losing as much as 35% through waste or inefficiency then no matter how competent the private sector entity to generate a profit services will have to go up.
“Efficiency and effectiveness cannot compensate for profit,” said Miller.
He pointed out that efforts to privatize garbage collection by the government in the 1990s would have seen a massive increase to the consumer even with the cheapest bid with a jump from $25 fees to almost $600.
The independent member warned that both government and the consumer are likely to find that the promised savings will be nowhere to be found. He said by selling its assets or more profitable entities government will be left with nothing to subsidize the services that it must supply and those that are rejected by the market place because they are unprofitable. Miller warned that the recommended government fire sale may lead to increased taxes to help a leaner government pay for the services it must still supply as it will no longer have its more profitable revenue streams.
The outspoken independent member who is the first politicians willing to comment on the record to CNS about the report, also warned that given the scale of the recommended sell off and the pressure to move ahead with rationalization, government is not in the best position to sell its assets. Under the circumstances he said the value of any government entity on the auction block “will be artificially reduced.”
However, Miller’s major concern about the report, which he said was difficult for the man in the street to digest because of the format and presentation was that government had given the auditors the wrong remit.
He said that a large part of the report is likely to be irrelevant as he said government is not willing to implement much of it. Cabinet should have made policy decisions about what it was willing to divest first, Miller pointed out, and then asked EY to analyze how much the entities would be worth and the best way to go about selling, divesting or bringing in a partner.
Miller said privatization is not the only answer to cutting government costs and improving its own management and efficiency was a more realistic alternative. He said government is obligated to provide certain services and not everything needs to be about profit there are some things, he said, that must be subsidized.
The independent member said if government goes down the privatization road the danger will be that the private sector creams off the services that have the potential to generate a profit from the consumer. Government will be left with a catalogue of services that must still be provided that are costly to deliver and at the same time will be managing on lower revenue streams.
The independent member urged government to think about a different approach and to at its assets and personnel. He called for better succession planning to encourage keep the best staff. The member also pointed to government policy on spending as a significant area for improvement.
He said that government policy still drives a considerable amount of waste as he pointed to massive investments and injections of cash into unnecessary projects such as the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on world class sports facilities on Cayman Brac.
CS on stand-by for cut directions
(CNS): Another very short account released by the deputy governor’s office from the civil service boss’ regular monthly meeting indicates that the public sector management is now on stand-by to begin implementing the cuts agreed by Cabinet from the recent Ernst and Young report. The chief officers have agreed that each recommendation which is accepted by the elected arm of government must be viewed as a separate project requiring their leadership and support for successful and timely implementation.
According to the minutes, posted below, the deputy governor said Rodrigues will be heading up the Strategic Reforms Implementation Unit, which will oversee the changes and provide guidance and support to Chief Officers and their teams. Franz Manderson revealed that the veteran civil servant will be assisted by three to four existing civil servants who will be seconded on a full or part-time basis to the implementation unit.
GIS will also beproviding communications support and getting the word out on what could be far reaching changes and ramifications not just for the civil service but the wider community as a whole.
The minutes record that the role and functions of the unit were discussed as well as the standardized implementation framework which the public sector bosses said will be crucial to the success of the project.
One month after the government received the controversial report from EY the PPM administration has not yet given any indications about what if anything it plans to implement. The premier recently stated that following the meeting of the Legislative Assembly last month caucus has not yet had the chance to examine the document in detail or make any hard decisions about the report’s 55 recommendations.
Government has stated on numerous however, that it does not want to divest assets in the short term to raise cash only to find it has damaging long term implications. Although the premier had said there were no sacred cows it is understood that the report is not being widely embraced by the PPM members of government and there are genuine concerns that the wider party membership will also reject most of the recommended government firesale.
CS jobs must be transferred
(CNS): If government goes ahead with the privatization plan recommended by Ernst and Young hundreds of civil service posts will be lost. Unless those workers are transitioned to the private sector the country will face a surge in the already high unemployment figures and government will be footing the bill for the social fallout. In its review of the controversial report the Chamber of Commerce, a vocal supporter of reducing government, said the private sector must take on the local workers. However, MLA Ezzard Miller, who has raised concerns about the report, warned that if the private sector takes over government services it will be looking to cut headcounts and recruit cheap labour, not looking out for government workers.
A long statement released this week by the Chamber, spelling out its support for the EY report and fire sale of government assets, said that transitioning public sector workers had to be a top priority. Stating that no Caymanian should be left behind, it said the private sector must be an active participant in the transitional process.
Chamber President Johann Moxam emphasised the need for the transition of civil servants into the private sector, otherwise, he said, the rationalization would not succeed. He said that any reduction in the number of civil servants must be achieved through a transfer of jobs to the private sector, not through absolute job losses
“The Chamber is prepared to work with the elected government and public sector to help identify the skills, competencies and attributes of civil servants in departments or units under consideration for rationalization and then facilitate their recruitment into the private sector. Developing an effective transition plan can be done — we should not avoid it because it is new or difficult,” he said.
Moxam said that permits should not be given to employers involved in taking on government services if those jobs can be filled by government workers whose departments are being cut.
“The success of this type of initiative will require the immigration department to work closely with the NWDA and all related agencies to ensure that work permits are not granted forjobs that could objectively be filled by the suitably qualified transitioning civil servants who may be impacted by the rationalization project, and this must apply across the board to labourers, administrative staff and professionals,” he stated. “Transitioning those persons into the private sector is crucial to the overall success of any rationalization initiative."
However, the government has proved significantly inadequate when it comes to policing the labour laws in the private sector or enforcing immigration laws relating to the granting of government workers. Over the last few months CNS has highlighted numerous infractions relating to the manipulation of the recruitment process by employers to maintain work permit holders and the transition of civil servants into the private sector is very unlikely to be a smooth one.
The independent member for North Side, Ezzard Miller, pointed out that the private sector has been extremely vocal about the stereotypical image of the civil service and he said employers will not be rushing to embrace hundreds of civil servants caught up on the government sell-off.
“We know that the private sector seems to believe that every single civil servant is lazy or incompetent. I do not believe that they will be willing to take on more than a few civil servants. Employers will try to fill the posts with cheap labour and permit holders,” he warned, adding that government would see a painful increase in local unemployment and find its annual social service bill growing from $65 million to $165 million.
With cost-cutting the goal of the rationalization plan, Miller pointed to the idiocy of creating so much more unemployment among local workers. The North Side memebr said he believes efficiency and how government spends cash is where officials need to look to cut spending not the proposed fire sale.
(See more on CNS tomorrow.)
NWDA can’t enforce job ads
(CNS): Policing the content of recruitment advertisements that seem tailored for permit holders (sometihng that has been causing the community concern) is down to the immigration department and not the government’s National Workforce Development Agency, officials have confirmed. They also revealed that the immigration law does not require employers seeking work permits to list those positions with the agency. Despite the pressures on government over local unemployment while more than 20,250 overseas workers currently reside in Cayman on permits, the agency tasked with assisting the jobless is limited in what it can do regarding work permit regime infringements.
However, the employment minister and the ministry’s deputy chief officer both pointed out that communication between the immigration boards and the agency has vastly improve in the last few months as a result of the on-line connection to the NWDA job database.
Dr Tasha Ebanks-Garcia revealed Friday that only 800 job seekers from an estimated 1900 or so unemployed people are registered with the agency but their details are now available for immigration officials to see and the immigration boards now know when Caymanians have applied for positions. As a result more permits are being deferred while employers justify why they are declining local applicants. With the assistance of technology people can also browse the NWDA agency site without formally registering and apply for the positions directly and the boards can see where that has occurred on-line.
During a presentation and tour of the agency, which has undergone a significant transformation from the old job unit at the department of labour, for the press Friday, staff from the NWDA explained that they want more people to register to give them a better picture of the jobless situation and to help those seeking work find it.
Employment Minister Tara Rivers said the agency had made great strides in recent months and while there is still more to be done the team has grown and the interface between the NWDA and the immigration boards is starting to make a difference.
Rivers pointed out that it was a campaign promise of hers and most other candidates to address the problems regarding the NWDA and to see the department function as intended, which is to train and develop the local workforce to match the needs of the labour market.
As well as matching job-seekers to vacancies, the agency is focusing heavily on training to remove the barriers unemployed people face in their job search, from a lack of relevant skills to what Ebanks-Garcia described as 'soft skills', such as people’s attitudes towards work and meeting employers' expectations.
Having previously noted her concerns about the kind of advertisements for jobs which relate to existing permits, the minister explained that although the NWDA can’t enforce the immigration law in that respect, the improvements that have taken place at the agency in recent months give the boards more relevant information to help them make better decisions about permits. She said the five additional enforcement officers which were budgeted for by the home affairs ministry are currently being recruited and they will be responsible for enforcing the rules relating to the efforts employers make to find local workers.
Under the immigration law, employers are required to make the “best efforts” to recruit locally before turning to permits, and while the agency can’t force an employer to list work-permit jobs with it, with the kind of information now directly available to the boards at the click of a mouse, employers are under more pressure to comply and justify their recruitment practices.
“Where employers don’t do more … the boards are now more inclined to ask questions,” the minister stated.
Rivers noted that in the end it should be the NWDA that deals with all of the issues relating to recruitment and not immigration and this was a goal she hoped to accomplish during her tenure as minister, but until that major transformation could take place she had to tackle the situation within the current legislative framework.
Ex-minister wrongly shamed
(CNS): The former health minister is no longer a director of the paving company ARCP that was named and shamed by the department of labour’s enforcement unit this week. Mario Ebanks, Department of Labour and Pensions director, said that due to staffing issues an error had been made and Mark Scotland should not have been named on the list of employers breaching labour regulations, as he apologised to the ex-minister. Scotland divested his shares in ARCP after he was elected to office and became a minister in the last UDP government and has nothing to do with the allegations against the firm for not paying employees.
“Due to the case file manager not being in office during the finalization of the List of Cases, it seems that another officer accessed a previous, and now outdated, Business Registration record, which reflected Mr Mark Scotland,” Ebanks explained. “Our records now confirm that Mr Scotland’s interest had subsequently been divested and therefore did not coincide with the date of the ongoing prosecution."
Offering his apologies to Scotland, he confirmed that the current principals are Peter Young, Samuel Young and Justin Woods.
He added, "I can also confirm that Mr Mark Scotland has been very helpful inrecent months in assisting to rectify this unpaid wages matter, which has now been paid, but it was not done prior to the matter being submitted for resolution through the courts.”
A spokesperson for ARCP told CNS that the firm had begun addressing the outstanding wages last year and partial payments were being made before the matter was submitted to the courts.
Ebanks said Wednesday that the document naming and shaming employers breaching the labour laws had been amended and a correct version was now posted on the NPO website.
The former minister was erroneously named in connection with a disputed court case relating to the paving firm ARCP, where he was a former owner, along with seven other companies and their owners who are facing charges relating to various labour breaches.
Although the enforcement arm of the labour department has been naming and shaming employers who are breaking the pensions law, this is the first list released to the public of bosses whose labour law breaches have taken them to the courts.
With hundreds of employers suspected of breaking numerous labour related laws, the eight cases represent only a tiny fraction but demonstrate some action by the authorities to hold employers to account.
Island Builders Ltd, owned by Dean and Jennifer Scott, face 106 charges of Failure to Pay Overtime Pay, contrary to section 25 (1) of the Labour Law (2011 Revision). That case was mentioned in Summary Court on June 11 and was adjourned to March next year.
The former president of the CITA, Harry Lalli, is also facing 38 charges of not paying overtime, officials revealed, in relation to his company Front Door Cayman Ltd. That case was adjourned last week until next month.
Meanwhile, the owner of Sail Inn Restaurant, Mario Rankin, is facing 28 counts of failing to pay overtime and his case is expected to be back before the magistrate in January. Michael Witter’s M&R Construction has four charges against him for failing to comply with an award of a Labour Tribunal contrary to section 76 of the Labour Law (2011 Revision). This case is expected to be set for a trial date next month.
Aralco Ltd, owned by Winston Salmon, faces one charge of failing to comply with the Labour Tribunal and a trial date is expected to be set for that case next week.
Blue Eyes Granite, owned by George and Sally Craig, faces five charges of failing to comply with the Labour Tribunal. Their case has been adjourned sine die but officials said matters still remain on file.
K9 Security Services, owned by Sterling and Penny Rivers, is the only case on the list in which officials indicated that the 45 charges of failing to pay overtime had been disposed of and the cash owed paid.
See the details on the NPO Website here
CS bosses urged to press on with ‘proper process’
(CNS): The deputy governor is encouraging the civil service management to continue to follow the rules when it comes to procurement despite some criticisms in the local press. According to the latest minutes released by his office of an August meeting of public sector heads, Franz Manderson is urging his staff to press on with the major projects in accordance with the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility and recommendations by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG). Discussing the OAG’s reports on major projects and management problems, Manderson said mistakes had been made in the past but he believed lessons had been learned.
In the short account of the high level civil service meeting on 11 August Manderson said significant progress has been made on implementing the recommendations in Auditor General Alastair Swarbrick’s reports regarding procurement. The deputy governor and public sector boss said a major projects office was being established and confirmed that a director of procurement was being recruited and should be in office within the next few months, though he was not specific about the timeline.
Manderson had first announced plans for a procurement office over one year ago at a Public Accounts Committee hearing in September. He said at the time that the new government department would address issues relating to large public capital projects and procurement, develop new laws and establish business cases for public projects. Manderson said some $350,000 has been budgeted for the office.
During the meeting Manderson said that in the meantime major capital projects currently under consideration, such as the seaport, airport and landfill, are all being carried out in accordance with the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility (an agreement signed with the UK and incorporated into local law) and the Auditor General's recommendations. Noting the criticism in the press about the process being followed with some of these projects, he told the bosses “not to be deterred and to continue to follow best practice”.
The DG said the auditor general had expressed a desire to audit the progress of these projects at an early stage and it was agreed that chief officers Jennifer Ahearn and Stran Bodden would meet with the Swarbrick the week after the meeting.
Referring to past mistakes on major capital projects, Manderson said he was of the view that lessons had been learned and that proper process was now being followed and would be followed going forward. This, he added, was in keeping with the vision of providing value for money in everything the government did.
See a copy of the minutes below.
Leaders hang on office walls
(CNS): Pictures of the governor and the premier are appearing on the office walls of government buildings around Cayman in what some may say is a retrograde step in a modern democracy. As other countries around the world are shunning old-fashioned ideas of having the faces of leaders posted in too many places, due to controversies surrounding the personality politics and potential leader cults, Cayman has for the first time moved to put not just the governor but its elected leader of government on office walls. The Protocol Office confirmed that this was its initiative and that this is the first time official pictures were being posted in government offices.
“I can confirm that this is a Protocol driven endeavor, utilizing the assistance of PWD to hang official photos of HE the Governor and the Hon Premier in several Government Buildings. This is the first time this has been done at this level,” Meloney Syms, the Protocol Coordinator, confirmed by email last week.
Although the Queen has traditionally hung on some office walls here, pictures of the governor or former elected leaders have not been common sights in government offices.
Hanging pictures of leaders is often associated with dictatorships and countries where the cult of leaders is strong. On his election victory José Mujica, the Uruguayan president, not only rejected the trappings of office and began donating most of his salary to social causes, but he also directed that his picture should not be posted on walls anywhere.
Ed Miliband, the leader of the UK’s Labour party, is also likely to reject formal images if he gets elected as the next British prime minister. He told the country’s voters not to vote for him if they wanted someone who looks good in a photo and rejected the concept of image-based politics.
Making reference to his unfortunate attempt at eating a bacon sandwich in public recently, he conceded, "David Cameron is a very sophisticated and successful exponent of image-based politics,” as he indicated his intention to pursue a different approach. "My true test of leadership is not just whether you look the part but whether you can retain your soul. Not being dismissive or contemptuous of people, whoever they are, wherever they come from," Miliband told the UK press recently.
However, both Alden McLaughlin and Helen Kilpatrick will now be smiling down from their official photos, seemingly unconcerned about the message such a move may send.