Search Results for 'turtle farm'
Joey comes clean over theft
(CNS): In a surprise turnaround following his recent clams of innocence, Joey Ebanks has changed his pleas and has admitted to 17 counts of theft, forgery, fraud and deception relating to his time as the managing director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority. Between September 2012 and March 2013, he is said to have stolen around $100,000 from the authority, including spending more than $67,000 on iPads and iPhones. Ebanks, who stood as a political candidate in the North Side race as an independent in the 2013 election and as a PPM candidate in the 2009 election in the same district, had claimed the allegations were part of a conspiracy against him. Following a campaign protesting his innocence on Facebook for almost a year, Ebanks stood in the Grand Court dock Friday and came clean.
The June trial date that had been set relating to his previous not guilty pleas was vacated and a sentencing hearing fixed for 13 March. Defense attorney Ben Tonner requested a social enquiry report before the hearing and for his client's bail to continue. With no objections from the crown, Ebanks, who will be facing a custodial sentence, was bailed to return for sentencing.
Ebanks is also facing charges in Summary Court for theft and drug related offences. In addition, the police recently announced that Ebanks was under investigation relating to a solar panel project Ebanks attempted to launch while working at the ERA.
A former talk show host, Ebanks is no stranger to controversy. When he was the managing director of the Cayman Turtle Farm, he was at the centre of a controversial report by the Office of the Auditor General, as well as running up a significant bar bill and taking what appeared to be unauthorized salary advances of some $40,000. That cash was paid back, however, when he resigned in order to run for office with the PPM in 2009.
SAGCs in even worse state
(CNS): Statutory authorities and government companies (SAGCs) cost the Cayman taxpayer over $100 million every year but the auditor general has found a complete lack of accountability in most of them, which appear to be failing on the good governance front even more than core government. Pointing to poor standards of governance amongst the semi-autonomous public bodies, with none of them properly accounting for what they do, Alastair Swarbrick said the SAGCs are failing to tell the story of how they spend public money or how they are achieving government aims and objectives.
Employing 38% of public sector workers, the 26 entities account for around $300 million of expenditure and bring in around $200 million of revenue. They also deliver a significant number of government services, from health to connecting the islands.
As part of a recent assessment and audit of good governance in central government, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) also looked separately at the issues relating to statutory authorities and government companies. The team undertook a survey, which was sent to 25 public authorities, consisting of 36 questions relating to principles of good governance. While 17 of the authorities responded to the public auditor, eight made no attempt to fill in the survey to assist the office.
Cayman Airways, which receives a considerable subsidy from government every year, the Cayman Islands Development Bank, the Children Youth And Services Foundation, The Civil Aviation Authority, The National Drug Council, The National Housing Development Trust, as well as the Sister Islands Affordable Housing Initiative and the University College Of The Cayman Islands failed to answer the auditor’s questions.
From those that responded, the auditor general found a variety of practices across the entities relating to how they are governed which gave him serious cause for concern.
“Many of the practices we found were not acceptable. The good governance of these organisations are in some cases are contrary to such laws as the anti-corruption legislation in place,” Swarbrick said.
While his office was already well aware of the problems as a result of the financial audits it has undertaken, this report reinforced that understanding of what he said were “poor practices and the extent of effort required for improvements to be implemented".
Swarbrick also raised concerns about the lack of response from the eight, despite considerable follow-up action by his office.
“This in itself indicates to me a considerable issue with regard to entities supporting the concepts of good governance and doing what they need to ensure they have good practices employed in their entities,” the auditor general said in his conclusion.
He warned that his office would be returning for further audits in specific organisations to “determine the extent to which the poor governance practices have led to poor performance and lack of due diligence with respect to the management of public resources.”
In his substantial report Swarbrick said the framework in the Public Management and Finance Law (PMFL) for SAGCs to report to government was not working, so there was no accountability and few assurances that the public authorities were working effectively or achieving any of government’s objectives.
He said that in many cases results were not clearly stated and, as with the problem in core government, these entities are focused on activities, not goals or how they are achieving value for the money they get from the public purse. Pointing to confusion over roles as well as their continued failure to produce timely or accurate financial accounts, how they achieve value for money is completely absent in most cases.
All organisations that spend public money have to strive for economy efficiency and effectiveness in their work, Swarbrick noted but said, “We did not observe one situation where an SAGC established how it had achieved value for money in its operations.”
The auditor general found a policy void from core government with regards to direction, which he said had led to uncertainty, and while these entities are meant to have some autonomy, government appears to have lost control of them.
In his response to the problems surroundingSAGCs Premier Alden McLaughlin said that they had been difficult for government to rein in. He spoke about the pay freeze implemented across the civil service which was largely ignored by the SAGCs and said that some of the CEOs were earning far more than the governor, the deputy governor or himself. He indicated that in some cases where the creation of a government company or authority has failed to do what It was originally created to do, government would be considering taking back the services into core government.
Even though CEOs are getting top dollar in these companies, Swarbrick’s report highlighted many failures as well as confusion of roles between the ministries and their staff’s responsibilities with the boards and CEOs of the SAGCs.
“There is an incomplete understanding about how good governance framework is supposed to work in the SAGCs,” he said
While chief officers are supposed to be responsible for monitoring the relevant SAGCs in their ministries, because government isn’t setting clear directives or policy goals for them there are no clear results expectations.
Ironically, the audit office found that the Cayman Turtle Farm, which gets the largest subsidy from government and is one of its most troublesome authorities, was the only government company to identify what it was really for and had performance targets.
Outlining his concerns, Swarbrick said that good governance provides a roadmap for how a country is governed, including its economic policies and regulatory framework, as well as adherence to the rule of law.
“In my reports, I talk about how the lack of good governance can lead to corruption and the abuse of public authority or trust, for private benefit. As we all know, corruption undermines the public’s trust in its government. It also threatens market integrity, distorts competition, and endangers economic development,” Swarbrick warned.
With myriad problems at the SAGCs, the auditor noted it was government that had to address the significant gaps between what is expected and the current reality.
“With 26 entities reporting to core government and a sizable part of how government delivers services to residents, SAGCs need to be accountable for their results. We found that Government has yet to implement an effective means to hold these entities to account,” he said.
“We identified many practices which were weak and did not reflect reasonable governance practices for these types of entities, leading to increased risks,” Swarbrick added and emphasised that SAGCs are simply not achieving the results and outcomes that should be expected of them.
Check back to CNS for more on the missing ethics, values and conflicts of interest in government found by the OAG.
Cayman faces serious environment risks
(CNS): A new report by the UK’s Environmental Audit Committee on sustainability in the overseas territories has raised a litany of serious environmental risks in Cayman, which was one of the territories it visited during the course of compiling the report. Taking the British government to task over its failure to ensure sufficient guardianship of the environment in its territories, the report raises concerns about the Cayman Turtle Farm, waste management problems, uncontrolled development and the failure to use the Environmental Protection Fund in Cayman. The report also found that inadequate development controls and no statutory requirements for EIA’s are threatening the islands.
The in-depth report covers all of the UK’s territories and raises a significant number of issues relating to myriad environmental problems. However, Cayman features heavily in the report as it was one of the case studies.
As an example of the dangers of uncontrolled development, the report highlights a situation in Little Cayman of developers clearing land in preparation for a significant sub-division, which has caused concern for residents but seems to be flying under the radar regarding local activists.
“We identified a pertinent example how inadequate development controls impact the environment when we visited the Cayman Islands,” the report states.
Pointing to the lack of a development plan for Cayman Brac and Little Cayman and minimal planning controls, the committee said that a British company, Crown Acquisitions, had purchased land on all three Cayman Islands, which it has subdivided into undeveloped plots.
“Crown Acquisitions told us that it owns approximately 200 residential plots with planning permission on Little Cayman,” the report said. However, CNS understands that Crown Acquisitions has not, in fact, made a single planning application on the Sister Islands.
The authors went on to explain that given the size of Little Cayman and its healthy marine environment, as well as it being home to the largest red-footed booby population in the Caribbean, and the fact that Crown Acquisitions told the committee “that it had not assessed the impact of its proposed development on Little Cayman's infrastructure,” there was significant concern about the development and the impact on the islands’ unique environments.
“Although they are acting within the current development framework, developers are risking the biodiversity and ecological sustainability of the Cayman Islands. That is the direct consequence of inadequate development controls and lack of comprehensive governance arrangements,” the committee warned.
The audit committee berates the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for not meeting its constitutional responsibility to ensure that good governance arrangements in the UK's overseas territories include sustainable development, effective development controls and statutory environmental impact assessments for major developments and strategic infrastructure plans. It presses the office to direct governors to advocate strongly for the introduction of effective development controls.
The report describes the UK Government as having “constitutionally subcontracted environmental management” directly to the territories but the committee found that this does not devolve away the UK's ultimate responsibility under international law.
“The overseas territories are plainly not independent sovereign States. Their external relations remain the responsibility of the United Kingdom, the sovereign power. Accordingly, the United Kingdom is responsible for each of the territories under international law,” the report states.
With more than 500 globally threatened species in the territories and undisturbed habitats of international significance, the UK government has acknowledged the importance and sensitivity of the rich biodiversity among them but the committee accused the FCO of abdicating its responsibility.
“During our inquiry, the UK Government expressed general but unspecified aspirations to 'cherish' the environment in the overseas territories, but it was unwilling to acknowledge or to address its responsibilities under United Nations treaties. This was disappointing, because the environment in the Overseas Territories is globally significant and comprises 90% of the biodiversity for which the UK Government has responsibility,” the report said
In Cayman alone the report points to a litany of environmental problems and while it welcomed the introduction of the National Conservation Law, it had significant concerns about waste management practices in the Cayman Islands.
“We saw old refrigerators being crushed with no regard to CFCs and recycling that ranged from minimal to non-existent,” the report reads. “The waste management site on Grand Cayman appeared to be inadequately lined and waste may be seeping into the water table.The facilities on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were even less convincing. The facility on Little Cayman was lined, but the lining had been fractured by the unregulated burning of rubbish. The facility on Cayman Brac was unlined and waste appeared to be seeping into a nearby lake
“Local authorities in the UK have the expertise to address those issues. Cayman Islands Government and the UK Government might wish to consider developing a partnership with a UK local authority to share best practice,” the report.
Pointing to Cayman’s Environment Protection Fund, which is currently worth more than £40 million, none of which has been used for environmental protection, the committee said the UK Government could have persuaded the Cayman Islands Government to use it for its intended purpose.
“If the fund were used for its intended purpose, it would allow UK funding for environmental protection, such as Darwin Plus, to be directed to other UKOTs which have more limited resources than the Cayman Islands and which do not have access to their own environment funds,” they wrote.
However, pressure from the FCO regarding Cayman’s finances had led to the government keeping hold of the $40 million to boost its reserves.
“The UK Government is prepared to exercise hard and soft power in relation to financial matters in the UKOTs, but it is apparently not prepared to exercise those powers to protect biodiversity and to promote environmental sustainability," the report found, as it pointed to a long list of recommendations about dealing with the OT’s environment issues.
Check back to CNS regarding the report’s findings on the Turtle Farm.
This is the year that was
(CNS): Cayman may have welcomed a new government and a new governor in 2013 but it also faced many familiar problems, in particular a continuing rise in serious crime and a sluggish economy. The first part of 2013 was dominated by a long and heated election campaign against a backdrop of genuine concerns in the community about Cayman’s future. However, in the second half of the year, with the new PPM government incorporating non-party members, the Progressives sent a signal that party politics could be flexible, as it pressed through a new budget, immigration changes and the long awaited National Conservation Law before the year was out.
JANUARY: 2013 began, much as 2012 did and as 2014 has, dominated by crime with two people being mugged on the streets of Grand Cayman on New Year’s Day. Tourism was hit with bad news when the Carnival Cruise Line announced it was cutting the number of ships coming to Cayman, and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) upped its campaign to highlight conditions at the Cayman Turtle Farm. January also marked the beginning of the permanent closure of a stretch of the West Bay Road, as Dart Realty began work on the Easterly Tibbetts Highway. Meanwhile, Dr Devi Shetty was given planning approval for his hospital in East End.
The Governor’s Office started legal proceedings to challenge a decision by the information commissioner in an effort to keep documents relating to the discredited Operation Tempura under wraps. The Nation Building Fund continued to stir up controversy when it was revealed that a handful of churches had received almost $500,000 at a time when the public purse was having significant cash flow problems.
The travelling expenses of the then premier, McKeeva Bush, were revealed to much consternation. The election battle started to heat up when several Coalition for Cayman candidates began declaring their intention to run in the election on the non-party C4C ticket and the voters in Bodden Town finally outnumbered those of West Bay.
As crime continued throughout the month, the RCIPS received its first batch of Tasers and began training officers in how to use the controversial non-lethal weapons. Days after announcing the introduction of the weapon into the police armoury, an officer shot a 44-year-old suspected burglar.
FEBRUARY: The prison system came under the spotlight in February when a report by the UK’s prison inspector exposed a shocking environment of mismanagement, drug abuse, victimization, bullying and violence, as well as poor and inhumane treatment of inmates.
Meanwhile, the interim People's National Alliance administration said that the deal signed between the UDP government, the National Roads Authority and the Dart Group in December 2011, known as the NRA Deal, was legally binding. However, four West Bay women filed court action against the deal. (They are currently waiting on the decision in the case by Justice Henderson.)
The election campaign got into full swing as several candidates declared their hand and McKeeva Bush opened the UDP campaign in West Bay. Despite being under arrest at the time on suspicion of theft and abuse of office, Bush also opened the new UDP office. A proposal was floated by the UK for Cayman to encourage election observers, which caused Bush some concerns.
The month was dominated by scandal at the airport and hints of corruption among board members when the suspended CEO of the Cayman Islands Airport Authority was accused of mismanagement at the airport and the misuse of public money. A report commissioned by the CIAA Board indicated that hundreds of thousands of dollars appeared to have been misappropriated, with boozy lunches for staff that were on duty, flying lessons for an employee running a private flight school, as well as unexplained thefts.
The Cayman Islands Government revealed that it was owed more than CI$16.5 million in uncollected fees and bad cheques. DECCO, a subsidiary of the Dart Group, was selected by the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) to generate future power on Grand Cayman.
MARCH: The managing director of the ERA, Joey Ebanks, was suspended in the face of an investigation into alleged financial irregularities in the authority’s books. Ebanks was later sacked from his job, arrested and charged. (He is due to stand trial in 2014 for a list of offences.) Following his arrest he not only declared his intention to run in the election as a candidate for North Side but also began making allegations of corruption surrounding the DECCO award, triggering another enquiry and ultimately a new tendering process.
Meanwhile, an RCIPS staffer, who was the first person charged under the Anti-corruption Law, pleaded guilty to several counts relating to the misuse of information and was given a suspended sentence. Later in the month McKeeva Bush was charged under the same law with a list of offences, including theft, abuse of office and corruption, following his arrest and fall from office in December. The then education minister and deputy premier, Rolston Anglin, was fined $500 and banned for one year after he pleaded guilty to drinking and driving.
A second legal challenge wasmounted against the West Bay Road closure, which was eventually to fail because it was out of time. Negotiations between government and Dart also hit the news headlines as the interim government tried to claw back more value for the Cayman people regarding the NRA Deal.
Kent McTaggart, who had announced his intention to run as a Coalition for Cayman candidate in Bodden Town, pulled out from the political race ahead of Nomination Day in the first of a series of issues relating to candidates qualifications. Richard Christian was prevented from running after he admitted having an American passport. Questions were also raised about Tara Rivers’ qualifications, which resulted in a full courtroom challenge later in the year. In the end, 57 candidates were formally nominated to enter the election.
Members of the interim Cabinet, three of whom had been part of the UDP government, denied knowing anything about an agreement which the former premier and UDP leader, McKeeva Bush, had signed in 2012 with China HarbourEngineering Company (CHEC) regarding the development of cruise port facilities before he fell from office. The five ministers said they knew talks with CHEC had moved toward a framework agreement but had no idea that their leader had signed that deal without any legal advice and without consulting his Cabinet colleagues, including the attorney general.
APRIL: The controversial nation building fund was in the headlines again when it was revealed that the Red Bay Church of God (Holiness), which was attended by the new premier, Juliana O’Connor Connolly, had received around $100,000. It was later to give the money back and others followed suit, with Hillside Chapel on Cayman Brac returning the $50,000 grant it was given from the fund.
Cayman’s lack of environmental legislation put the islands at the bottom of the league across the UK overseas territories in the first ever analysis of environmental laws across all 14 OTs.
The beleaguered former premier, McKeeva Bush, made his first appearance in court in connection with the charges against him, which were transmitted to the Grand Court as details emerged of allegations that he used his government credit card in casinos. The former MD of the Electricity Regulatory Authority and candidate for North Side was also charged with 29 different counts of theft and fraud-related offences. Joey Ebanks was also threatened with a number of civil legal threats as a result of the allegations he made on his Facebook page.
The Elections Office was concerned that electors in George Town would not vote correctly, thus spoiling their ballots, because of the whopping six votes they would have in the May 2013 elections. Campaigns against treating, corruption and vote buying took centre stage in election news, even as vandals attacked political posters. The PPM candidates all made public pledges of integrity as the UDP launched an ethics policy.
It was revealed that prisoners at HMP Northward were posting on Facebook using smartphones smuggled into the prison. Crime continued throughout the month and even Cayman Brac featured in the crime headlines, as customs officials and police recovered over 100lbs of cocaine in a space of less than two weeks on the south side of the island. The drugs were estimated to have a street value in excess of $6 million.
MAY: The month opened with more alleged white collar crime. The former head of the Pines Retirement Home, Sue Nicholson, left the island under a cloud amid allegations that she had misappropriated significant funds. While the RCIPS say they are continuing the investigation, no arrests have been made. Nicholson’s husband has now paid back the undisclosed missing sums that disappeared during his wife’s tenure. The RCIPS scored a significant result, however, when five men were all convicted of the robbery of Cayman National Bank following a jury trial one year after the daylight heist, in which the men made off with over half a million dollars.
Talks between government and Dart over the NRA Deal and the concessions in the original agreement collapsed ahead of the elections because the government and the developer could not agree on changes to re-balance the deal in favour of the public purse. A report by local management consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers also revealed a number of risks and raised questions about the value of the deal, pointing out that the CIG was down at least $20 million.
A survey on the state of the country’s health found that the people of the Cayman Islands were unfit, overweight and at high risk of chronic non-communicable diseases. Most were not eating the right foods, smoking and drinking too much and not getting enough exercise. More than a third (36.6%) were found to be obese and over 70% overweight.
The $1 million donation given to a Jamaican university that had planned to convey an honorary degree on McKeeva Bush hit the headlines as police said they were looking into the issue. Bush denied any knowledge about the money, which was transferred from a New York bank to the University College of the Caribbean (UCC) but returned when the former premier did not get the degree in the fallout of his arrest.
Meanwhile, the election campaigned heated up as candidates threw dirt at their opponents and hedged their bets on who they would or would not support, as expectations for a coalition government increased. On Election Day just under 80% of voters turned out for what were declared as free and fair elections by observers. The PPM took the majority of seats and quickly invited Julianna O’Connor-Connolly, the only interim Cabinet member re-elected, into the fold and offered her the post of speaker of the House. Tara Rivers, the C4C candidate who came second in the West Bay fight, breaking the UDP stranglehold, was invited by the new premier, Alden McLaughlin, to join his cabinet.
Rivers eventually joined the government, though not the PPM, several days later. Her two C4C colleagues, Winston Connolly and Roy McTaggart, joined the government back benches in what the new premier termed an inclusive government. Bush, whose UDP had managed to win three of the West Bay seats, ousting his former colleagues, Rolston Anglin and Cline Glidden, became opposition leader, as both the independent members, North Side MLA Ezzard Miller and East End MLA Arden McLean, took up their position on the opposition benches but away from the former premier, signalling their opposition not just to government but to the official opposition as well.
Cayman mourned the loss of Edna Moyle, a former speaker of the LA, PPM member and North Side political representative, who was given a full state funeral.
JUNE: As the new government settled into office, Osbourne Bodden made it clear that this administration would not be moving the George Town landfill but would be tackling the garbage pile where it is. Moses Kirkconnell, the new tourism minister, promised two piers in George Town and no upland development for the cruise berthing facility. Finance Minister Marco Archer started on his first budget and the Coalition for Cayman told its candidates, who were now in government, it would be keeping a close eye on them.
Crime continued to be of major concern, with daylight robberies and increasing burglaries. Thieves even stole meat from the Cayman Turtle Farm. Police said they were perpetually dealing with gang-related issues and the commissioner revealed that fights, gun possessions and escalations of tensions when known gang members were released from jail regularly occupy his officers. Operation Tempura, the discredited investigation into police corruption, continued to make news as Martin Bridger, the former lead investigator, made allegations about its handling by Cayman authorities. He claimed that everyone, from the former governor to the attorney general, had been conflicted in the case and had withheld critical information from him and his officers during the probe.
Police procedures came under the spotlight when local activist Sandra Catron won a judicial review over an illegal warrant. The court heard that police officers had asked a justice of the peace to sign a search warrant, even though he had no clue what he was signing and did not understand the alleged crime. He admitted that not only did he not have any understanding of the law but that over the course of two decades he had never refused to sign a search warrant or ever been shown evidence to support them.
On the consumer front, customers felt an even bigger pinch when Caribbean Utilities Company was given permission to increase power rates by 1.8%. The new government introduced a travel policy that saw ministers flying in economy class.
With Governor Duncan Taylor heading for a new position in Mexico, Cayman learned that for the first time a woman had been appointed to the post. In an additionalbreak from tradition, she came not from the Foreign Office but was a public finance expert from the UK’s Home Office.
Meanwhile, the issues over election qualifications hit the headlines when John Hewitt, the husband of Velma Hewitt, the only UDP candidate who failed to win a seat in West Bay at the national poll, filed a petition challenging Tara Rivers’ election. The new education and employment minister's focus moved to the courtroom as a hearing was set for July.
JULY: Crime continue to dog the Cayman Islands; a bus driver was mugged while another man was stabbed in the stomach, as robbers took to ambushing their victims on their doorsteps. Meanwhile, one local police officer was under investigation after allegations were made that he was buying illegal numbers in a local store.
The Elections Office reported that over $1 million was spent by candidates on the election campaign and the new financial services minister, Wayne Panton, was revealed to have been the most significant donor to his own party’s election success. Civil service reform made the headlines and Deputy Governor Franz Manderson said that in future promotions in the public sector would be based on performance and not length of service. In his parting interviews Governor Taylor said his biggest regret was that he was not able to advance reform in the civil service further and increase accountability.
The governor-in-waiting, Helen Kilpatrick, made a flying visit to the islands and promised the people she would listen and learn when she arrived to take up the post in September.
The new government opened talks with Dart regarding the ForCayman Investment Alliance, the NRA Agreement, the West Bay Road closure and the 50% tax concession on accommodation, which Kurt Tibbetts, the minister of Planning, Agriculture, Housing and Infrastructure, announced was not acceptable to the new administration. Meanwhile, the ERA cancelled the award to Dart for power generation in light of the ensuing scandal after Joey Ebanks made allegations that the bid had been fixed for the local developer.
The PPM made the announcement that it would be following through on its election promise to change the rollover policy and push the term limit to ten years (though eventually it was to settle on nine) — passed the point of eligibility to apply for permanent residency, essentially allowing everyone to have a shot at PR.
Stingrays that had been held captive at a local dolphinarium were recovered and released back into the wild by the Department of the Environment in accordance with changes in the law that now protect the local marine creatures.
All eyes were on the courtroom in July, when the election challenge against Tara Rivers began. It was soon revealed that Rivers had been living overseas in the seven years prior to the election and that she held and used an American passport. Nevertheless, the new minister insisted she was qualified. Despite being a co-respondent in the election petition, the attorney general remained largely silent. The government lawyer was placed in a compromising position as a defendant in the Rivers case when he had previously advised the Elections Office that Richard Christian was disqualified to run as a candidate for Bodden Town after he admitted having a US passport.
AUGUST: Cayman did not have long to wait on the decision regarding the Rivers challenge. Chief Justice Anthony Smellie declared in August that Rivers was duly elected. Despite her time spent working overseas before the election and the fact that she has and uses an American passport, the CJ foundd that she was qualified, signalling a new interpretation of the elections law and the constitution. However, shortly after the ruling lawyers acting for Hewitt filed an appeal but because the local law indicates that the Grand Court has the final say in any election challenge, the appeal was eventually thrown out.
Meanwhile, crime continued to plague the community. The RCIPS raised concerns about the number of burglaries and more home invasions by armed villains, and robberies in the tourist district of Seven Mile Beach were reported. However, it was convicted criminals that dominated the headlines in August when Steve Manderson, his son Marcus Manderson and Jamaican national Chadwick Dale all busted out of HMP Northward. The break-out came just weeks after Cayman’s new prison director, Neil Lavis, arrived to take up his post after almost thirty years working in the prison system in the UK. Although Dale and Steve Manderson, who was on his sixth jail break, were captured within a few weeks, Marcus remained on the run for many months and was eventually recaptured in December.
Sex offenders also made the headlines this month. A magistrate handed down a six month jail term to a father who had molested his 8-year-old daughter. The sentence caused outrage in the community and led local activist Sandra Catron to press politicians for a minimum sentence for all sex offender cases. Catron came under investigation herself as a result of her connection with an unofficial register that was naming and shaming sex offenders in contravention of local laws, which seek to protect the names of victims by not naming the offenders.
A jury found 22-year-old Tareeq Ricketts guilty of the murder of Jackson Rainford. The George Town man was convicted of the killing and possession of an unlicensed firearm after the jury found that the crown had proved Ricketts shot 23-year-old Rainford out of jealousy and anger. Rainford was killed as he sat in the passenger seat of a car just off Sheddon Road in Printers Way, George Town, in December 2012.
Cayman’s Under-15 football players put up a great show as Cayman hosted its first international CONCACAF development tournaments, with a step in the right direction for sports tourism thanks to the influence of Caymanian Jeffrey Webb, who, as president of the regional footballing body, ensured that his country also benefitted from his lofty appointment.
In recognition of his efforts in successfully bringing back Grand Cayman's blue iguana from the brink of extinction, Fred Burton was nominated to receive an international award for animal conservation.
SEPTEMBER: Crime was a dominant issue through all of 2013 but in September things began to get even worse. The month saw the first murder of the year and a further increase in gun crime and even a car-jacking.
Education Minister Tara Rivers hit the headlines again when CNS revealed that she had missed the start of the new school year, having gone to South Africa for a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference, as the LA opened and just a few weeks after the court case over her qualification for election, which had kept the minister away from her desk.
The public were less than impressed but Rivers reaction caused an even bigger firestorm when she took aim at the press for reporting on her decision to go to Johannesburg, accusing the local media of gender discrimination. On her return she had to deal with another drama in East End, where parents had locked the district primary school in protest over teacher shortages at the beginning of the new school year.
The leader of the opposition’s trial for the alleged misuse of his government credit card, which had been set for March 2014, was postponed and re-set for 8 September 2014.
The police were kept very busy with daylight armed robberies at stores and in the street, with more doorstep muggings in which robbers shot at and eventual hit one of their victims. The worst was yet to come; in what was believed to be a gang-related murder in West Bay, Irvin Bush was gunned down outside his home in Daisy Lane. No one has yet been charged with his killing. Bush was the father of Robert Mackford Bush, who was killed in a spate of gang-related shootings in the district twoyears earlier.
The Cayman Islands was revealed to have one of the highest rates of prisoners per capita in the world, according to research by the International Centre for Prison Studies, coming in at number 20 on the world list out of 223 countries. Nevertheless, the new PPM administration announced its intention to invest $2.1 million in a new police custody suite to lock up more criminals.
Two remand prisoners became longer term residents of Northward after two major convictions and sentences made the headlines. Michael Levitt, who was described as a "sophisticated and calculating criminal", admitted seven counts of theft and related crimes in connection with more than 80 fraudulent transactions from the accounts of law firm Solomon Harris, where he was employed as the financial controller. The 57-year-old South African national stole over US$846,000 from the local legal firm and was handed a seven and a half year sentence.
Serial rapist Jeffery Barnes made the headlines again when he was given a full life sentence after being convicted of a second rape and the embargo on reporting his cases was lifted.
The head of the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) revealed that 971 households in Cayman were receiving some kind of permanent financial support. The agency also helped another 1,795 households with some form of service, from help with elderly relatives to paying one-off bills for families.
The new Cayman Islands governor arrived and announced that, like her predecessor, she intended to operate with a light touch but emphasised the mantra of good governance. Admitting she had a lot to learn and speaking directly to the people, the twelfth governor of the islands and the first woman in that role said she would “work tirelessly” to earn the people’s trust.
The final stretch of the Esterley Tibbetts Highway to West Bay opened as Dart continued in closed door talks with the new government. The Mastic trail won an international award and the World Cup passed through Cayman on its way to Brazil.
OCTOBER: While September had kept the police busy enough, in October crime reached crisis point and dominated the headlines as cops dealt with three more murders and a string of robberies and muggings.
The killing of Earl Hart in Prospect and Anthony ‘Beenie’ Connor near Mango Tree shook an already fearful community as the level of crimes involving guns climbed to shocking heights. In a month in which the RCIPS started a recruitment drive, Police Commissioner David Baines reportedly cut his three week leave short to answer to Finance Committee, as MLAs called for him to take responsibility for what veteran PPM backbencher Anthony Eden described as "poor policing" and a failure to keep the people of Cayman safe.
Things got worse for the RCIPS as the police opened the fourth murder case of the year after the body of 35-year-old Patrick Leonard Williamson was found in a pond close to his home in Spruce Lane, off Courts Road. The police also lost a suspect after he dived into a raging ocean. Anthony White remains missing, although police say he is believed to have left the island.
The RCIPS did get some results to brag about in October when the Cold Case Unit laid charges in a 2008 killing. Chad Anglin, who is serving a five year sentence for indecent assault and wounding, and Leonard Antonio Ebanks, who is serving a life sentence for murder, were charged with the murder of Swiss Banker Frederick Bise, who was killed over five and a half years ago in West Bay.
Three out of four accused men were found guilty in the case of the WestStar TV offices robbery, which took place in May 2012. The men, some of whom were also involved in the CNB robbery, were handed hefty sentences. David Tomasa, who was considered the mastermind in both robberies, and Andre Burton were handed 14 year sentences. Ryan Edwards got 13 years, George Mignot, who was convictedin the bank case but not WestStar, got 12 years, and Rennie Cole was given nine years.
According to a leaked memo, which was sent by the Information and Communications Technology Authority’s director to local telecommunications firms, the Cayman authorities were making plans to widen their spying net and wire taps to include all kinds of electronic information.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office gave the PPM government the nod for its budget, with a more than $100 million surplus. Despite a great deal of opposition and misunderstanding about changes to the immigration law, government steered through legislation removing the seven year term limit and allowing all ex-pat workers who stay in Cayman for eight years to apply for permanent residency.
However, Tara Rivers failed to show up to the LA for the critical debate, sending word that she was unwell and unable to attend. Veteran PPM backbencher Anthony Eden joined the opposition benches and voted ‘no’ to the government’s change due to his concern that more than 1,500 exemption permit holders were allowed to remain. Government promised to help locals find work ahead of the controversial changes and the decision to allow those term limit exemption permit holders to stay.
Pension issues hit the headlines again. Three years after completing a report on the appalling state of pension delinquency in the private sector, the complaints commissioner revealed that things had got worse. Nicola Williams said the number of delinquent bosses had increased by 70%, with tens of millions of dollars now missing from pension funds. Shortly afterwards, Employment Director Mario Ebanks revealed that delinquent pension bosses would be named and shamed, with the details of their alleged offences uploaded onto the National Pensions Office website.
Before the month was out Cabinet backed plans to move ahead with the development of two berthing piers in George Town, despite a number of questions regarding the business case and very real fears for the environment and in particular the future of Seven Mile Beach.
NOVEMBER: While crime remained a pressing concern and dominated the headlines, Cayman’s moves towards more transparency in the financial services industry were also at the forefront of the news stories in November. Mark Simmonds, the UK’s overseas territories minister, made his first visit to Cayman and said he was impressed by the new government’s budget plans. His visit came against the backdrop of CIG signing a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) agreement with the US and a similar agreement with the UK. The government also began a consultation period on how the jurisdiction would tackle the issue of beneficial ownership disclosure.
Meanwhile, robberies muggings and burglaries continued and police opened the fifth murder case of the year when local businessman Perry Steven McLaughlin was allegedly killed by his girlfriend at his home in Little Cayman. In another shocking first, Little Cayman also fell victim to armed robbers when five masked men held up the mini-mart store in Blossom Village and stole the cash pan, ran off and boarded a ‘fast vessel’. The five men were quickly arrested off the coast of East End and all of them were later bailed but no charges have yet been brought in the case.
Things got worse for the RCIPS when one of their own went on trial accused of bribery. However, the case against Elvis Kelsey Ebanks was adjourned part way through when the judge was forced to discharge the jury because of a legal procedural issue. The case against three men charged with conspiring to rob the George Town branch of Scotiabank also collapsed part way through after the judge questioned the credibility of the crown’s only key witness and threw the case out.
Aat the prison the seizures of drugs and other contraband continued when officials turned up thirteen phones and chargers during various searches. Prison Director Neil Lavis said efforts to control drugs, booze and phones in the prison were being frustrated by members of the public who continued to try to smuggle items to inmates or throw them over the double-perimeter fences.
PricewaterhouseCoopers said the development of a cruise berthing facilities would cost around $100 million and it would take whoever develops the port 20 years for them to recoup their investment. Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell set out the plans for the project and made it clear the PPM government wanted to work with a consortium of cruise lines to avoid a monopoly and that it had campaigned on putting the dock in the capital.
Hopes that Cayman Enterprise City (CEC) would boost government coffers were dashed when documents revealed that the initiative has barely covered the costs of setting up and running of the Special Economic Zone’s authority. Billed as a potential new economic pillar for Cayman, there is still no sign of the promised campus and the predicted earnings for the public purse have failed to materialize.
As Cayman’s first information commissioner, Jennifer Dilbert, headed toward her retirement, she continued to expose dire shortcomings when it came to public authorities properly following the freedom of information law. Finding many procedural issues, she pointed to “appalling record keeping” by public authorities and agencies and raised concerns about the perception being created that government was deliberately hiding documents.
Local business man and architect and upright law abiding citizen Burns Connolly launched a campaign to lobby for the legalization of medicinal ganja. The Human Rights Commission warned that government needed to tackle the issue of mandatory life sentences before it was forced to adopt an inappropriate model for Cayman as the concept of whole life sentences runs contrary to Cayman’s own Bill of Rights.
The government made a decision to move the beginning of its fiscal year from 1 July to match the calendar year and to introduce multi-year budgeting, which will see an 18 month budget delivered at the end of this fiscal year followed by a two-year budget on 1 January 2016. The controversial Nation Building Fund (NBF) hit the headlines again when the government revealed that some students had received three and a half times the maximum scholarship given to students through the normal procedures. Some students related to key UDP members were revealed to have received annual grants of almost $70,000.
The Cayman Turtle Farm admitted that it should not be releasing its farmed turtles into the wild without putting the animals through a more vigorous quarantine and health screening process. As a result, despite having more than 8,000 turtles at the facility, the annual release, which the CTF highlights as part of its conservation credentials, did not go ahead in 2013.
DECEMBER: The last month of the year was dominated by the National Conservation Law and the polarization of those for and against. After a long debate and hours of wrangling at the committee stage, Environment Minister Wayne Panton made history when he finally steered the NCL through the Legislative Assembly with full support from across the floor.
There was little let-up on the crime front though, with more robberies and burglaries. The RCIPS Stay Alive road safety campaign recorded 32 road crashes in its first ten days. One man caused havoc at the peak of the tourist season ahead of the Christmas holidays with a Saturday evening bomb hoax
Nelson Mandela, the founding president of the new South Africa, died at his home aged 95. As the entire world mourned his passing, Cayman opened a condolence books on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac.
Local attorney Anthony Akiwumi argued that the closure of the West Bay Road was an unconstitutional ‘fait accompli’ which gave the people of the Cayman Islands no right of appeal and lacked transparency when heopened the case for four West Bay ladies who filed a legal challenge to the closure. The plaintiffs are currently awaiting a decision by justice Alex Henderson in the case.
Regardless of the new more cordial relationship with the UK, the Cayman Islands Government began a new fight with Britain over the future of Cayman-specific British passports and the ability of the local passport office to issue emergency passports, especially to those who are in need of overseas medical attention. Premier Alden McLaughlin said he had “some grave concerns” about the UK government’s plans to replace local, non-biometric variant passports in its territories with British biometric ones.
The United Democratic Party (UDP) came to an end in December, when party officials announced plans to ratify a change in its name at the party conference in the New Year. The new Cayman Islands Democratic Party (CDP) was registered under the Elections Law (2013 revision) as a political party to replace the UDP, which was formed in 2001 by the opposition leader and former premier, McKeeva Bush.
Christmas lunch was in question for many families when power outages across George Town and parts of Bodden Town disrupted preparations and the holiday festivities.
Meanwhile, despite extensive sea searches, authorities were unable to find a missing cruise ship passenger who is believed to have fallen overboard on New Year’s Eve some 13 miles off the coast of Grand Cayman as the ship approached George Town harbour.
There were no top royal gongs for Caymanians in the Queen’s New Year’s honours list, revealed on 31 December. However, despite a year dominated by rising crime, UK national David Baines, the police commissioner, was awarded an OBE for services to policing in the Cayman Islands.
Golf gets into the swing of Movember
(MO-COMM): When you think of a classic golf tournament your mind is naturally drawn to the golfing Majors – The Masters at Augusta, the U.S. Open, The (British) Open, and the US PGA Championship. But now I think it fair to say there is another “must see – must win” tournament on the golfing calendar – a fifth Major if you will or in this case a fifth MO’jor because The MOvember MO’PEN Championship 2013 is rapidly becoming the prestigious golf event of the year. The MOvember campaign aims to change the face of men’s health by raising awareness of men’s health issues such as prostate and testicular cance.
The MO’PEN CHAMPIONSHIP is a great fundraiser to help support the free-testing of men for prostate cancer and to make a donation to the building of the new Chemotherapy unit at the George Town Hospital. Participants in MOvember, known as “MO bros” grow moustaches as a symbol of their commitment to the cause.
And there were plenty of MO’s on show as 108 golfers (although I use the term loosely i.e. people with golf clubs) turned out at the North Sound Golf Club in Safe Haven to pit their wits in a four ball scramble and take part in a number of extra-curricular games that really testing their golfing abilities including putting and chipping, longest drives and closest-to-the-hole competitions.
KPMG took the top billing in the tournament itself narrowly beating off the guys from HSBC and Rawlinson & Hunter in a close finish. Wally Clark won the closest-to-the-pin with a superb chip. Alex Dawson won the Men’s Longest Drive, and Toni Pinkerton the Ladies Longest Drive with some fine club work.
Event organiser, JS de Jager said, “It was another great day of golf. All thanks to the volunteers, the players and the Sponsors for helping us raise over CI$12,000 on the day for the Cayman Islands Cancer Society.” It’s a fine example of how having fun and raising money for a great cause go hand in hand like hand in (golf) glove – a smooth fit indeed!
Golf in the Cayman Islands is in rude health and thanks to the efforts of everyone taking part in the MOvember MO’PEN Championship 2013 the importance of men’s health has a higher profile than ever before.
Thanks must go to the fine sponsors and supporters of this event and those who provided some great prizes. They include: Mourant Ozannes, Cayman Distributors, Kirk Freeport, Lobster Pot, Cayman Turtle Farm, Saxon Insurance, Cayman Islands Cancer Society, Boss Hoggs for great food, Waterman, Halo, DMS Broadcasting, pwc, Maples, AON, KPMG, Fidelity, Titan Development, Premier Wines and Spirits, Conyers, Dill and Pearman, Global Funds Management, Al La Kebab and Eurocar.
Government aims for 4% cut in spending
(CNS): Although government is hoping that its earnings will increase during this financial year compared to last in order to meet its predicted surplus, it will also be keeping a tight rein on public expenditure in both core government and its statutory authorities and government companies (SAGCs). Finance Minister Marco Archer has said that over the current and the next financial years government proposes to cut public spending by $22.5 million, or 4%, with a subsequent cap on increases at 1%. The initial reduction in expenses over the next two years is expected to result in early savings in tandem with improved revenue collection. As core government tightens the purse strings, the minister indicated that the SAGCs must play their part in both cuts and earnings.
With prudent financial management (the minister's theme for the public purse when delivering the Strategic Policy Statement earlier this month in the Legislative Assembly), Archer said the government’s “ fundamental responsibility” was to ensure that “every dollar is well-spent”, as he pointed to streamlined resources. “We are adamant that by replacing waste and abuse in government with transparency and accountability and efficiency, our country will realize great savings in the medium and long term,” the minister said.
Aside from plans to continue cutting personnel costs, Archer indicated that the PPM administration would be placing a higher degree of reliance on savings from supplies and consumables, purchase of outputs from non-government suppliers and the purchase of outputs from statutory authorities and government owned companies.
He said that government was seeking to restructure the financial affairs of SAGCs "by mandating that comprehensive reviews of their operations be undertaken with credible and sustainable changes implemented thereafter. The goal is to improve the financial performance of the SAGC’s and make them less reliant on funding and subsidies from central government.”
Archer has not yet said which authorities or companies will face the most cuts but with the Cayman Turtle Farm sucking in $10 million in government subsidy and Cayman Airways still needing around $5 million each year from the central government, those two companies are likely to provide the starting point for government pressure.
Archers also announced during the presentation in the LA that legislation to effect “greater clarity and uniformity in the governance arrangements to be exercised by government with respect to Statutory Authorities and Government Companies is being drafted.” This was expected to be brought to the LA before the fiscal year-end, he said.
Surplus growth predicted
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Government (CIG) can look forward to growing surpluses over the next few years, according to the finance minister, who has pointed to a surplus of almost $150 million for government at the end of 22016/17. Although government now has plans to reschedule the financial year in line with the calendar year, it is still predicting a continuous increase in operating surpluses for each year of this administration. Marco Archer said government should have a surplus of $123.5 million in 2014/15, $139 million in 2015/16 and finally $148.7 million in 2016/17. As well as vowing to cut costs and not add new fees or taxes, the minister said government companies and authorities would be under pressure to be more productive.
Delivering the Strategic Policy Statement to the Legislative Assembly and tabling the Medium Term Fiscal Strategy of the CIG for the Financial Years 2013-2017, which was sent to the UK before government delivered its full budget for 2013/14 and approved, Archer continued on the theme of prudent management of the public purse.
The minister said that government does not plan to introduce any new major revenue measures during the next three financial years but warned there may be some revisions to fees for existing services to reflect the cost of delivery. He forecast that with anticipated economic growth, government will earn approximately $655.3 million in 2014/15; $669 million in 2015/16 and $676.9 million in 2016/17.
Turning to expenditure, he said government had a responsibility to ensure that every dollar was well-spent and resources streamlined.
“We are adamant that by replacing waste and abuse in government with transparency and accountability and efficiency, our country will realize great savings in the medium and long term,” he said.
With the tightening of the belt in mind, Archer said government’s operating expenses were expected to be $531.8 million in 2014/15, a 2.3 percent reduction from the approved 2013/14 budget; then $529.9 million in 2015/16; and $528.3 million in 2016/17.
The minister also pointed to the goal of improving the financial performance of the statutory authorities and government companies (SAGCs), making them less reliant on funding and subsidies from central government.
He said government wanted to restructure the financial affairs of SAGCs by mandating that comprehensive reviews of their operations be undertaken "with credible and sustainable changes implemented thereafter”.
With government injecting massive subsidies into entities such as the Cayman Turtle Farm, Cayman Airways, which are meant to be managed independently, the minister made it clear that it would not be business as usual and that the SAGCs would need to be far more accountable.
See both the government’s SPS and the MTFS below.
The economics of unemployment
Albert Einstein once remarked that if he were given only one hour to save the world, he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes working out the solution. How might Einstein’s wisdom be applied when it comes to solving the Cayman Islands’ unemployment problem?
According to the most recent Labour Force Survey (conducted in October 2012) there were 1,925 unemployed Caymanians in the Cayman Islands labour market. But consider for a moment the significance of the word “market”.
A market is a place where buyers and sellers come together to engage in an exchange of value – normally an exchange of money for goods or services – through which both parties benefit.
One of the most critical features of a market is freedom of choice. Sellers are free to decide what to make and how much to sell it for. Buyers are free to choose between quality levels and prices. If buyers offer a price that is too low, they will be unable to find a willing seller. If sellers set their price too high, they will be unable to find a willing buyer.
Thus sellers are incentivised to compete against one another by offering the lowest possible price and best possible quality in order to attract a buyer. This process ensures that products and services in a free market offer a reasonable profit incentive for sellers, while offering the best possible price and quality to buyers.
Thus markets harness every human being’s natural instinct for self-interest to allocate resources, generate profit, reduce prices and increase quality of all the things we buy. Adam Smith, "the father of economics", termed this unseen, beneficent force “the invisible hand of the market”. When the things we buy become less expensive and better quality, the overall result is of course an increase in our standard of living.
It is worth considering what would become of a “market” without the key ingredient of freedom of choice.
If buyers did not have freedom to choose the product with the best value for money there would be no incentive for sellers to improve quality or lower costs in pursuit of sales. Instead, the same self-interest among sellers that would normally lead to competition would work in reverse. Sellers would become complacent, raising prices and having little regard for quality, which would be bad for buyers, leading to a decline in our standard of living.
That free markets generally lead to better outcomes and rising living standards is a matter of settled fact among economists. This is not to argue against regulation. Even in heavily regulated markets buyers and sellers have the freedom to choose what to buy or sell, at what price and whether or not to engage in a trade. Without such freedom, whatever we were attempting to describe would not be a “market”.
Coming back to the Cayman Islands employment market, an economist would define the problem as follows: 1,925 sellers of labour are not able to find willing buyers.
In order to gain a better understanding of why this might be, let’s consider the reasons a seller of any product might struggle to find a buyer. According to economic theory, there are only ever four possible factors preventing a seller from finding a buyer.
First, it could be because the price of the product is too high (a “price gap”).
Second, it could be because the quality of the product is too low (a “quality gap”).
Third, it could be because buyers are not aware of the product or have bad information that makes it appear unattractive (an “information gap”).
Fourth, it could be because there is insufficient demand for the product (a “demand gap”). In other words there are too few buyers and too many sellers.
Some readers may believe they see another possibility, that the price being offered by buyers is too low. But it is the buyer’s prerogative to buy at the price they believe to represent the best value for money. And all potential buyers must unanimously agree the price is too high (if a single buyer disagreed, the product would sell). Can they all be wrong?
Moreover, the buyer isn’t the one that has a problem — his need is being satisfied by the market. It is the seller that has a problem — he can’t sell his product. Economic theory, not to mention common sense, suggests that anyone without a good reason to change his or her behaviour will generally not.
So, to recap, our hypothetical seller has four potential issues that are preventing his product from selling: a price gap, a quality gap, an information gap, and a demand gap.
Every unemployed Caymanian is in this exact same boat, each a seller of labour unable to find a buyer, afflicted by one or more of these issues to some extent. Therefore, the war against unemployment is a war on these four fronts.
Let’s consider the issues, and potential solutions, in more detail, starting with the demand gap. First of all, does Cayman have one? Yes and no.
While most western nations are suffering from relatively high levels of unemployment, the underlying problem in each nation is basicallyarithmetic – most countries simply have more people than jobs. The Cayman Islands on the other hand is in the unique and fortunate position of having more than twice as many jobs as there are citizens in the workforce. So rather than a lack of demand for labour as such, if anything, what we have is a lack of demand for work unemployed Caymanians are willing and able to do.
Yet because economic growth (the proverbial “rising tide”) benefits all Caymanians – the unemployed, the employed and business owners – it is not just important, it is imperative for the government to create jobs in order to maintain our current standard of living. For in a service-based economy such as ours, creating new jobs is the one and only means of sustainable economic growth.
That is precisely why it is so important that the government come up with a new work permit system that guarantees employers either a suitably qualified Caymanian or a work permit for a suitably qualified expatriate (the current system does not). No company will establish itself or grow in Cayman if it cannot be assured of the ability to hire suitably qualified employees.
While the new immigration system should guarantee Caymanians access to job opportunities, as well as protection from discrimination, it must not be so restrictive as to come at the cost of economic growth. Otherwise the system may give the appearance it is protecting Caymanians while in reality it is holding them back.
In any case, to the extent jobseekers suffer from issues under the other three fronts described below (price, quality and information), increasing demand in itself would have no impact on unemployment because the additional demand would more than likely lead to new work permit applications. While such economic growth would still, incontrovertibly, be a good thing for Cayman, it would be cold comfort to the unemployed.
Compared to the vexing challenges of the demand gap, addressing the information gap should be relatively straightforward.
While every job not already filled with a Caymanian is required to be advertised in the newspaper, this is evidently not sufficient.
The current fall-back is the National Workforce Development Agency (NWDA), the government department tasked with introducing unemployed Caymanians to potential employers (among many other things). But the NWDA is significantly lacking in resources – both technology and manpower – to deal with the current level of unemployment. The annual budget for the department, according to the latest Annual Plan, is a mere $835,000 (a small fraction of the $10 million annual subsidy to the Turtle Farm).
Even a modest investment in technology would help close the gap. For example, every job registered with the department could be listed online for unemployed Caymanians to browse and apply for directly. This would be cheaper, easier and faster than applying for jobs via newspaper advertisement and regular mail. Those without computer access should be assisted by the NWDA. After all, the information gap cuts both ways — unemployed Caymanians may not be aware of every available job.
Improving the flow of information between the unemployed and the employers is one battle; improving the quality of the information is another. The NWDA should provide resources to Caymanian jobseekers, such as resume-writing support and interview preparation, to enable them to put their best foot forward with employers. They could also provide helpful resources to employers, for example, to ensure they accurately describe job vacancies.
The third front of the war on unemployment is the effort to bridge the quality gap.
Of course improving the “quality” of labour means up-skilling, in other words education and training. While providing more full and part time vocational training opportunities would help, the government should be realistic about the prospects for addressing the current unemployment problem through up-skilling.
Unfortunately, for the many unemployed Caymanians with family responsibilities, receiving an income is probably a higher priority than receiving an education. And in any case, the best way for someone to up-skill is by gaining work experience on the job. Hence it may be necessary for those people to find a job with the skills they have today and seek opportunities to improve them tomorrow.
If other unemployed Caymanians are able to invest more of their time in education and training, they must be given both the opportunity, and the financial assistance, to do so. But the outcome should be a skill that is in demand and a qualification that employers value. The government should partner with the private sector at every opportunity to ensure that is the case.
Unemployed Caymanians, for their part, should make sure they take full advantage of the training opportunities that are currently available.
While improving the quality of labour, through education and training, is of limited usefulness in addressing the existing unemployment problem, it is of course critical in preventing future unemployment. To that end the government should spend time considering what, if any, role historical shortcomings in local education have played in creating the current situation and ensure they are being addressed.
The final front of the war on unemployment is the most critical and the most contentious: the price gap.
As mentioned before it is almost impossible to persuade a buyer to change their behaviour to solve someone else’s problem. Therefore, no amount of “brow-beating” employers is very likely to succeed.
A better use of resources would be to change the economic calculation to make hiring unemployed Caymanians a rational way for employers to exercise their freedom of choice. That means closing “the price gap” between what buyers are willing to offer and sellers are willing to accept.
In fact, government is already lowering the price of all Caymanian labour relative to the market through work permit fees. Work permit fees artificially raise the price of all non-Caymanian labour by between 10 and 20%. But government can only increase permit fees so high before they become unbearable for small businesses and prospective inward investors. Most believe work permit fees passed that tipping point several years ago.
The introduction of a reasonable minimum wage would help, because, like work permit fees, it would spread the cost of bridging the price gap for the lowest earners among all buyers, rather than asking a small minority to pay over the odds. While such a measure is controversial in the business community, minimum wage laws have been introduced in most western countries without calamitous consequences.
Although it is somewhat unlikely that a person unwilling to work for $4 per hour would suddenly be motivated by the prospect of earning $5 per hour, unskilled Caymanians should not be made to compete on price with foreign workers prepared to live in squalor.
It would also be helpful for unemployed Caymanians to know the current market rate for their skill level. Some people that have lost lucrative jobs in declining industries may have unwittingly tied themselves to the mast of unrealistically high expectations. Others may have gone from job to job in the buoyant employment market of the 2000’s and failed to adjust their expectations to the “new normal” wage levels that have prevailed since the beginning of the global recession in 2009.
Whatever the reason, every unemployed person ought to know what the market considers a fair wage in order to know what wage to seek or accept. The NWDA, in cooperation with the private sector, should have resources that allow them to determine market salary levels with reasonable accuracy for jobseekers they assist.
Any jobseeker unwilling to work at the market rate for their skillset should not be eligible to receive government assistance (from NWDA or Social Services). Neither should anyone else that is effectively unemployed as a matter of personal choice.
The most problematic subset will be those people no employer wants to employ at any price: the so-called and infamous “unemployables”. Those with deal-breaking criminal records or psychiatric problems; serial job hoppers; those without decent employment references; in short those most in need of government assistance.
Programs such as Passport2Success (which should be expanded in resources and scope) can go some way to addressing the quality gap for those people in terms of basic “employability skills”.
However, the country will need to decide what is to become of these people. If the government wishes them to become productive members of society, it will need to provide a viable pathway to employment. This will involve a combination of remedies including counselling, social intervention and pro-active monitoring. But ultimately, some kind of direct government subsidy may well be required in order to provide private sector firms with an economic incentive to engage with government agencies and facilitate a return to work.
The alternative to providing a viable pathway to productive private sector employment is for such people to be marginalised and forced to live on government hand-outs indefinitely. It is surely better for the government to temporarily pay an employer to hire and train an unemployed Caymanian than to pay them to stay home.
While many will balk at the suggestion of any new investment designed to reduce unemployment (in the form of subsidies or new government resources), consider that the government rakes in more than $60 million dollars a year in revenue from work permit fees alone. Better to invest a few million dollars of that back into the Caymanian workforce than to decline, drive away or forgo a few million dollars worth of work permits in the hope that frustrated employers will suddenly “see the light” and hire people they have so far exercised their freedom not to.
After all, Einstein also said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”.
Budget details released
(CNS): The documents that spell out where government expects to spend $518 million running public services this year and how it will collect $644 million from the tax payer to pay for it have been released. Following the budget presentation by Finance Minister Marco Archer, the PPM’s policy statement by the premier and the throne speech by the governor on Monday, legislators will begin debating the budget Thursday and will then sit down in Finance Committee to scrutinize the line items set out in the annual plan and estimates and other budget documents.
The detailed paperwork shows that one of the biggest pay-outs of the public purse is for the RCIPS, which has a budget of close to $32 million, just over a $1 million less than it received last year. Spending has, however, increased on related correctional and intervention services, such as electronic monitoring, CCTV and court interventions, by just over $1 million.
Government will also spend around $13 million on various scholarships, over $6 million on poor relief and another $6 million on veterans' benefits. The Turtle Farm will get more than $10.2 million of tax payer’s cash again as it continues to drain public coffers, while Cayman Airways will receive just over $5 million in addition to the $18 million government pays for specific air services.
$6.3 million will be spent on the regulation of the financial services sector this year and well over $18 million on health insurance for retired civil servants. Government will spend $14 million on tertiary care at various local and overseas institutions and a further $11.7 million on health care for indigents. Controlling mosquitoes will cost the public purse more than $5.7 million this year and government will spend over $52.5 million on teaching for primary, high school and special needs students.
Meanwhile, the education minister will be the most expensive member of Cabinet when it comes to ministry assistance with more than $4 million set aside for policy advice, governance and ministerial support services, which is double and in some case three times that of her colleagues.
With a major surplus predicted, government expects to earn more than $644 million this year and that will come from a variety of existing coercive revenue measures, such as $90 million from company fees, around $42 million from mutual fund administrators, and over $87 million in regular imports, while $17 million will come from the sale of booze.
The banks are expected to chip in double that at more than $34 million. But even outstripping the earnings for banks this year will be the duty government will get from fuel at almost $35.7 million. It will also receive well over $60 million from work permit related fees.
See the Annual Plan and Estimates below.
Tourism minister and CS bosses travel to Colombia
(CNS): Moses Kirkconnell, the deputy premier and tourism minister, along with his chief officer, Stran Bodden, and Department of Tourism Director Shomari Scott, left Cayman on Monday for Cartagena in Colombia for the 20th Annual Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association Cruise and Conference Trade Show. Justifying the trip, government officials said that during the five day visit the minister will meet one-on-one with FCCA President Michele Paige to discuss cruise tourism and the status of cruise ship berthing on Grand Cayman. He will also be talking to partners in the cruise industry about the local product and the Cayman Islands Turtle Farm as an on-shore destination for cruise ship passengers and meeting with regional tourism ministers to discuss the industry.
“It is important for the Cayman Islands to be represented each year at this conference to let those in the industry know that we are still a viable destination for cruise ships and their passengers,” said Kirkconnell. “We had more than 1.5 million cruise visitors last year and we would like to work with the industry to see that number grow. Based on current forecast, our cruise passenger numbers are showing steady increase for this up and coming season. One way to continue that increase is attending conferences like this one.”
The annual FCCA Cruise Conference & Trade Show is considered a major event by the sector where key industry players can analyse trends and discuss current issues. The forum attracts nearly 1,000 cruise industry partners, including some 100 cruise executives each year. The conference also offers a number of round-table discussions led by a roster of industry experts and guest speakers who are specialists in marketing, sourcing, shore excursions and operations.
As Cayman waits on its business case for cruise berthing in the George Town Harbour, which is being undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers and expected to be completed this month, the tourism minister has said he is working on increasing calls to Cayman, ahead of the start of the very long awaited berthing facilities.
Officials said that the three Cayman delegates will return to Cayman on 5 October and in the interim Joey Hew, the PPM’s backbench councillor in the ministry, will be acting Minister of Tourism and Transport in Kirkconnell’s absence.