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Tempura flaws exposed
(CNS): Scotland Yard Investigators made up their minds over Operation Tempura within three days of their arrival in the Cayman Islands, former police commissioner, Stuart Kernohan, revealed in court on Thursday. Testifying via video link from the UK at the Lyndon Martin trial, Kernohan said he was extremely concerned when he realised what approach the first two undercover officers were taking so soon after they had arrived to begin an investigation into alleged leaks from the RCIPS to Cayman Net News.
Speaking publically for the first time since he was suspended, the former commissioner told the court that he had been instrumental in bringing the outside investigation team to Cayman following the accusations that had been made about the possibility that Anthony Ennis, his deputy commissioner, was leaking sensitive information to Desmond Seales. But the former senior RCIPS officer said he soon had very serious reservations about their conduct and the process of their investigation.
Kernohan revealed that, although information regarding the leak had come via word of mouth from Lyndon Martin and John Evans, no further progress could be made without some kind of documented evidence. He explained that at that point there was not even enough evidence to apply for a search warrant for the Net News offices.
Having consulted with the governor, the attorney general and the FCO’s OT security officer, Larry Covington, Kernohan explained that a decision was made to bring in a team from Scotland Yard in London, which arrived in Cayman in September 2007. The team later came to be known as the Special Police Investigation Team (SPIT) when Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) Martin Bridger retired from the Met and a number of other team members, which numbered up to a dozen officers at one time, were recruited from outside Scotland Yard.
Martin’s defence attorney, Trevor Burke QC, asked Kernohan about his first meeting with the two UK SPIT officers, who the ex-commissioner said he went to meet three days after they arrived. Burke suggested that Kernohan had a number of reservations from the get-go regarding the early conclusions made by SIO Bridger and his deputy, Simon Ashwin, and the rationale for what they had decided. Kernohan agreed and told the court he was “very concerned” and confirmed that almost the first words from Ashwin on meeting Kernohan had been, “Now, what about this burglary?”
He expressed his concerns that they were getting things horribly wrong so early in the investigation because of a lack of objectivity and they had already made up their minds in just a few days of being on island. John Evans’ entry into Net News, Kernohan confirmed, could by no stretch of the imagination ever be called a burglary. “At the very first meeting I had with them they had spoken to no witnesses and they had already reached the conclusion it was a burglary,” he said. “It was clearly a fundamental error from the outset,” he noted, adding it was not something one would expect from professional police officers.
Kernohan said from that moment on he became apprehensive that the integrity of the investigation could be brought into question because of the rash conclusions and their lack of objectivity. The court heard how Bridger and Ashwin had dismissed Martin as a credible source, adopted Evans as a truthful witness, vindicated Ennis and placed Desmond Seales in the role of victim within days of arriving, having talked to no one.
Kernohan confirmed that he was officially distanced from the investigation by the governor, so there was no real supervision of the SPIT officers. The court heard that in January 2008 Kernohan had written to the then Chief Secretary, George McCarthy, in confidence about his concerns regarding the Operation Tempura officers and their overall behaviour, as they were serving as special constables in the RCIPS. Kernohan had alerted McCarthy to the officers’ conduct, the decisions that were being made, the early conclusions, the breach of local procedures and protocols, and above all that there was simply no oversight of their operation.
Burke suggested that Kernohan’s memo to McCarthy had been “something of a prophecy” as he had warned that the reputation of the Cayman Islands and the integrity of the original investigation were at risk without proper oversight of the investigators. Kernohan emphatically agreed that this was indeed the unfortunate outcome.
The former commissioner also noted that Bridger’s technique of taping witness statements and then writing them up later from the tapes himself was vulnerable to abuse and had also given him cause for concern. Burke asked if this had been aptly illustrated with the unlawful arrest of Grand Court Judge Alex Henderson, which was based on Bridger’s written version of John Evans’ statement and not the actual testimony that Evans had given. Kernohan agreed and said he had been very worried by this technique and he would not be interviewed that way as he insisted he would want to write his own statement.
Kernohan also revealed to the court that he was still not entirely sure exactly what the criminal allegations were against him and why Bridger had in February 2008 sought a search warrant for Kernohan’s house on two occasions, which had been refused by the chief justice. Kernohan, who confirmed he was suspended from his job in March 2008 and dismissed in November 2008, said he could not reveal any more because of his own pending civil suit.
Kernohan did confirm that the he had instigated the outside investigation because, from his own UK experience, any internal questions of a specific force would be investigated by the Police Complaints Commission or would be handed to another regional force. And he was aware that the only way an internal RCIPS investigation could take place would be with outside help.
Kernohan confirmed that, as Martin was reluctant to go public with what were serious allegations, he was frustrated in his investigations into the RCIPS leak even before it started as he had no hard evidence. He acknowledged it was a particularly sensitive investigation because it was a newspaper. However, he said he was not too concerned about what Desmond Seales may have thought if he had succeeded in securing a search warrant.
During his time on the video-link stand Kernohan confirmed that he had received a separate allegation from John Evans that Ennis was Seales’ source on the disparaging stories about the helicopter, as well as concerns from the now leader of government business and then opposition leader, McKeeva Bush, that Ennis was leaking to Net News. Kernohan said he had met Bush at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where Bush had told him that “the bald one” was leaking information to Seales. He went on to confirm that the main allegations had originally been made by Martin to Rudolph Dixon.
Witness loses cool in court
(CNS): Problems with witnesses mounted for the prosecution during the Lyndon Martin trial on Wednesday, when straight on the heels of one key Crown witness telling the jury the defendant had done nothing wrong, another entered into a confrontation with the defence counsel and stuck his tongue out in the court. Desmond Seales, the publisher of Cayman Net News, denied having a corrupt relationship with RCIPS Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis as suspected by Martin, but his behaviour in the courtroom was called into question by the judge on at least two occasions.
Seales took the stand on Wednesday afternoon, following the declaration by key prosecution witness, John Evans, that he did not believe Martin had done anything wrong and should not be on trial. Seales remained calm and composed during questioning by the prosecuting attorney, Andrew Radcliffe QC, denying ever receiving leaked information from the Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis or ever implying to anyone he had a relationship with Ennis. He told the court that he had never told anyone that Ennis was a source for news.
However, within minutes of the cross examination by defence attorney, Trevor Burke QC, Seales’ behaviour became volatile and defensive and during the questioning the presiding judge, Roy Anderson, was forced to speak with Seales about the need for respectful behaviour in the courtroom.
When Burke began his examination he asked Seales, if he was ever offered information from a senior police officer whether he would accept it. Seales agreed he would and that he would not see that as a crime. He said, however, that he would not protect that source or any other source that gave him confidential information. Burke queried if informants would ever be safe telling him anything, and Seales confirmed that he would reveal sources as he had done with regard to former tourism minister, Charles Clifford.
When Burke then suggested that Seales would therefore be willing to give up his secrets, Seales became angry towards legal counsel, asking what the lawyer was inferring about secrets and that he should say what he meant. Seales volunteered that John Evans was a liar, and when asked by Burke in what sense, he said “in a truthful sense” as Evans he said had “lied abut the truth".
When pressed to name what lies Evans had told, Seales said, “Name one, name one ..well… that he said there were secret documents in my office and that I had a red box file,” Seales said in an agitated manner. “He is a liar.”
When Burke asked Seales if he had changed a story written by Evans about the helicopter, Seales loudly denied it and insisted that Evans had done it himself. When asked if that was the case, why Evans had then sent an apology to the police Commissioner, Seales declared: “If he did that well … he had no authority to do that!” Seales also insisted that Evans had never complained about changes to the story and that it was a “downright lie".
Moving on to issues concerning Anthony Ennis, Burke asked Seales if Ennis had threatened legal action against him and his newspaper in 2006 because of an article which Ennis claimed set him in an unfavourable light. Seales said if he had, he would join the queue and indicated to the court that he was not entirely aware if there was legal action but it was something that happened all the time.
When Burke pressed him several times about how many other senior police officers were taking legal action against him in that year, Seales evaded the question and again became very agitated as he continued trying to avoid answering. Eventually, he said maybe the former commissioner, Stuart Kernohan, had made some threats but he didn’t think so, at which point Seales stuck his tongue out at the lawyer.
Seales’ continued to appear uncomfortable as Burke asked him about his opinion of Ennis and whether he believed he should be the Ccommissioner. Seales refused to offer his opinion and said it was not his place to comment and that as a newspaper editor he was supposed to be impartial. When asked again, Seales said to Burke, “I’m not going to give in to you,” and said he would keep to the tenets of journalism and keep an impartial view.
Moving on to Kernohan, however, Seales then offered his opinion and said that he had seemed to be doing a good job as commissioner but he began evading the questions again when Burke asked him his position on the helicopter purchase. At this point the presiding judge, Justice Roy Anderson, pointed out to Seales that everyone in the court aimed to be respectful towards each other and directed him to answer the questions to the best of his ability.
Asked about his role in stories in Net News, in particularly regarding the helicopter, Seales gave the impression that he did not decide stories, look at them before publication or necessarily read them at all. He said the news content was down to his editorial management and that he did not have “castrated or impotent writers” at Cayman Net News.
Burke asked Seales if he had read the stories about the helicopter which were critical of Kernohan and if he enquired of the journalists why those stories were running. Seales said that if he had read the story and he was satisfied it was fair then that would be the end of it and things would move to the next story.
When Burke suggested that Ennis was Seales’ source on the helicopter, he again became angry and asked the attorney if he was asking him a question. Once again Justice Anderson explained that the counsel had put a suggestion to him and Seales should agree or disagree.
“”Your suggestion is incorrect,” Seales told the court. When asked if he had called Ennis his boy, Seales said he never uttered the word and when Burke asked if he had boasted to anyone that Ennis was his source, Seales denied that too. Asked if he had told John Evans or Lyndon Martinthat Ennis was his source on a number of occasions, Seales said it was a blatant lie and said Martin was a second liar.
Following the exchange, Burke asked him if he knew Rudolph Dixon, to which Seales replied not very well and said he was unaware that Dixon had fathered a child with a Honduran woman. As Burke began asking Seales about stories in the press related to Dixon, Seales refused to accept from the lawyer that a story had been written by John Evans as there was no by-line. The attorney noted that Evans had accepted authorship of the piece but Seales burst back at the lawyer repeating that there was no by-line and that he would not take the lawyer’s word for it as he could not prove Evans wrote it as there was no-by-line.
Burke finished his cross-examination of Seales by asking him how well he knew convicted murderer Sheldon Brown. He confirmed that they had met in prison when Seales was serving time for what Burke described as “various offences of fraud".
“Lyndon did nothing wrong”
(CNS): On the third day of Lyndon Martin’s trial, John Evans, a key Crown prosecution witness, told the court that he was very surprised that Martin had ended up facing charges as, Evans said, he did not believethat the defendant had done anything wrong, but had, with the best intentions, tried to help by telling the police about his concerns. Evans told the court that by putting Martin on trial the wrong message was being sent to the whole community about blowing the whistle whenever they saw something that they believed should be exposed.
Even though Evans was called on behalf of the prosecution, when Martin’s defence attorney, Trevor Burke QC, asked Evans if he had ever said that Lyndon Martin had “done nothing wrong”, Evans confirmed that he had. “I was very surprised when I heard Lyndon was on trial as it seemed to me he had done nothing wrong and was acting with the best intentions and in the interests of the Caymanian people,” he said, adding that it sent the wrong message about whistleblowing.
On the witness stand for more than three hours on Wednesday morning, Evans took the jury through his time at Cayman Net News, leading up to the entry into the offices late one evening in September 2007 to search for possible evidence of alleged leaks to his boss, Desmond Seales, from Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Ennis. The former Net News reporter explained that senior police officers had supported the search. Hours before his clandestine foray into the offices, Evans said he had spoken at length with RCIPS Chief Superintendent John Jones.
Evans explained that he had been part of the search because he too believed that information was being supplied to Seales from somewhere in the police service, and although he was not convinced it was Ennis, Seales had certainly said it was. Reflecting on his relationship with Seales, Evans said he was sceptical about any claims he made as, he told the court, “Desmond Seales’ version of the truth changed from hour to hour, day to day, to suit his needs.”
The former reporter said that the “normal rules of journalism” did not seem to apply at Net News and Seales had pressed him to write news stories without allowing him to check and verify the sources beforehand. Evans described Seales as vindictive and volatile and not someone he wanted to be on the wrong side of.
When Burke asked Evans if Seales believed to himself to be “a kingmaker who could bring down governments”, Evans agreed. “Not just governments but the judiciary as well,” Evans told the court.
Explaining why he had gone to Commissioner Stuart Kernohan with his own concerns over Seales regarding the police helicopter, entirely independently of Martin and long before the two of them discussed the matter, he said that Seales had told him directly that Ennis was his source on the information that Kernohan wanted to buy the helicopter simply so he could fly it. Evans said that Seales had made it very clear that the Deputy Commissioner was his source and not Lyndon Martin.
Evans said he expected that Seales would say he was lying as he already had indicated that in the pages of Net News over the last year, but Evans said there was no doubt that Seales had told him on a number of occasions that Ennis was his source regarding disparaging stories about Kernohan and the helicopter.
Evans confirmed that he had been outraged when a positive story he had written about the possible purchase of a helicopter to help police with the fight against drugs had been altered, and as a result he had sent his apologies to Kernohan via police liaison officer Deborah Denis. Evans explained that because a sentence had been added which he did not write, the story had been falsely distorted, and he believedSeales was responsible for adding the offending information to the article.
Evans spoke about how Seales had persistently pushed him to write disparaging stories about Kernohan and the helicopter, which he had refused to do. Evans said he could not find evidence to back up the accusations and had repeatedly told Seales that his source was wrong. However, Seales insisted the information was good because it had come from Ennis and would become extremely agitated when Evans wouldn’t just write the story as Seales said he should.
Speaking about the after hours entry into Net News in September 2007, Evans explained it had happened with the support of both Commissioner Kernohan and Chief Superintendent John Jones and that, although hehad not found anything, he was surprised when he entered Seales’ private office that it was essentially empty. Evans recalled how he had systematically looked through draws, cupboards and shelves, and not only did he not find copies of emails between Seales and Ennis, he found nothing else at all. “I was surprised the office was so very tidy,” he said. “There was just none of the usual stuff you have in your office desk and shelves – it was empty.”
Burke asked Evans about other issues concerning Seales and in particular about his time in Northward Prison . Evans revealed how Seales had bragged of his connections with Cayman’s criminal fraternity and that he was almost proud of the fact that he had served time in Northward. “Far from being ashamed,” Evans said, “he wore it like a badge.”
Evans added that Seales would bring unsavoury characters that were known to be criminals into the office and that he had bragged of being in contact with Sheldon Brown, an inmate in Northward prison serving life for murder, who was considered a very violent man. “As far as I am aware,” said Evans, “it was common knowledge that Seales keeps in touch with Sheldon Brown.”
RCIPS leak an accident
(CNS): Following the conclusion on Tuesday morning of the Crown’s opening statement, the jury heard from Lyndon Martin’s defence attorney Trevor Burke, QC, for the first time. He pointed out that, despite the Crown’s claims, Martin had believed the allegations to be true when he made them. In a long day of testimony the court heard from the Crown’s first witness that sensitive police information had been accidentally revealed to the press due to an error in e-mail distribution by the RCIPS press office. The court also heard that the Cayman Net News desk editor was unable to reveal who had altered news articles before publication.
After several hours in which prosecuting attorney Andrew Radcliffe, QC, had described to the jury why the allegations Martin made against Deputy Police Commissioner Ennis could not be true, in a short response his attorney Burke pointed out this was not what the jury was asked to decide. Burke said it was not necessary for the jury to determine that Ennis was or was not the “moleor the source” of a leak to Cayman Net News. He said they only had to decide whether or not the defendant believed it to be possible.
“When Lyndon Martin made the complaints to the RCIPS he genuinely believed that Ennis was the source of the information coming to Net News,” Burke pointed out to the court.
Following his short comment, the first Crown prosecution witness, Deborah Denis, the press liaison officer for the RCIPS, took the stand and related the circumstances under which police Gold Command meeting minutes (senior police) had been accidently released to the media.
How the police were handling complaints about a judge’s weapons cache in his bedroom and meetings with the auditor general, among other issues, had been covered in the minutes, which were emailed in error to individual members of the press. Denis explained how it had happened and that it was an administrative mistake over which she was mortified and had offered to resign – an offer which was rejected.
She gave details of who had accidently received the emails and how she had immediately recalled the Gold Command minutes and then attempted to contact as many people as possible to explain what had happened. She revealed that Lyndon Martin had not received a copy but said the minutes had gone to a general email at Cayman Net News, to which the Crown suggested Martin had access.
The defence asked Denis how the minutes were laid out and also asked if someone had not seen the email but just printed pages of the minutes, what they would see. She confirmed that they would not see a date or title or who was at the meeting.
Moving on to stories in Cayman Net News about the purchase of the police helicopter, Denis told the court that she had engaged in an email conversation with John ,a reporter at Net News, over a story he had written about it. Denis said Evans told her it had been changed by his boss, Desmond Seales,after he had filed the article for editing. He said a line had been added to the story to say that Police Commissioner Stuart Kernohan was going to be the pilot of the helicopter, which Evans said he had been unable to confirm and did not believe was true. Denis said that Evans told her he believed the story had been changed because of information coming to his ”boss” (Desmond Seales) from inside the RCIPS.
Denis then told the jury that the police commissioner had asked her to find out who was the source of the false information being given to Net News over the helicopter. She explained that when she met John Evans for another matter a few days after the email conversation, the issue came up and she asked him who it was. She said he had told her it was Anthony Ennis. She confirmed that all of this had taken place in August.
The defence noted that Kernohan was therefore already aware of suspicions regarding Ennis and Seales from another source other than Lyndon Martin. The second witness of the day was Paul Charles, the desk editor at Net News, who revealed that although he had copy edited John Evans’ piece about the helicopter, he had not made any changes. The court heard that Charles did not know how the line about Kernohan flying it had got there or who wrote it into the story, despite the fact his job was desk editor.
When Burke questioned him about his knowledge of the workings of Cayman Net News, where he had worked for almost five years, he could not answer many questions. Asked if his boss Desmond Seales had a printer in his office, Charles said he did not know. Asked if Seales had several phones, one of which was an internet phone, Charles said he did not know for sure what the phones were. Asked who edited the pieces after him, he said he did not know nor, he said, did he know where his boss kept sensitive information, although he did acknowledge he did seem to have sensitive information from sources.
Charles confirmed that Seales had a number of sources which he ordinarily kept to himself, but that when he was in dispute with the former tourism minister, Charles Clifford, over his bill to Cayman Airways Ltd (CAL), Seales had exposed Clifford as being the source of a leak when he was a civil servant, which ultimately led to a scandal and the Tucker enquiry. Charles also confirmed that a disparaging story had been run in Cayman Net News about the CEO of CAL after he had pressed Seales to pay his bills to the airline.
Burke asked Charles if he had discussed his appearance as a witness in this case with Seales, and he answered he had not. Questioned about his status, he confirmed he still worked at Cayman Net News and was on a work permit, and when asked by Burke if he depended on Seales for that he agreed.
Following Charles came John Evans, a former reporter at Net News and a key witness as he also entered the offices of Net News on the evening in September 2007 in an attempt to find the evidence that Martin alleged existed of Ennis and Seales’ corrupt relationship. Evans began his evidence by explaining the geography of the Net News offices before the court was adjourned. Evans will take the stand again at 10 o’clock this morning.
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MLA accused of ‘wicked lies’
(CNS): Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Radcliffe, QC went to great lengths on Monday afternoon to explain the charges against former Member of the Legislative Assembly Lyndon Martin to the jury and exactly what they had to be sure of before finding him guilty. He suggested that the case hung on the existence or non-existence of a red file which Martin had claimed contained incriminating evidence against a senior police officer. Accusing Martin of “wicked lies”, Radcliffe suggested that, had he been believed, Martin could have ruined the career of RCIPS Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis and with it unjustly brought down newspaper publisher Desmond Seales.
The long awaited trial opened in Grand Court five on Monday to a jury of seven women, who heard the prosecution suggest that the former politician had falsely accused a very senior police officer, Anthony Ennis, of leaking highly sensitive information regarding Royal Cayman Islands Police operations and of discrediting the Police Commissioner to the Cayman Net News editor in chief.
Radcliffe told the jury that they had to be satisfied that Martin had made these allegations knowing that they were not true and that he deliberately intended to pervert the course of justice with his “terrible baseless and wicked lies” that could have brought down both Ennis and Seales. He also warned them to put aside any knowledge they may have relating to the case concerning the dramatic unlawful arrest of high court judge Alex Henderson, the charges against Deputy Police Commissioner Rudolph Dixon and the removal of the former commissioner. All of these connect to Operation Tempura, the costly investigation into corruption in the RCIPS.
Outlining the accusations that Martin had made against Ennis, Radcliffe said they were all made up and when the police had pressed Martin for evidence he was not able to produce it, not because it was just difficult to get but because it never existed. Yet Martin continued to “up the stakes” with his lies.
Radcliffe said the lies and a red file formed a key part of the prosecution’s case against the defendant and that once the prosecution had demonstrated that this file did not exist, the jury may believe that Martin had maliciously fabricated the allegations against Ennis and Seales.
The red file which Martin had told other senior members of the RCIPS existed and contained emails sent by Ennis to Seales (evidence of the leak) was important, Radcliff told the jury, because Martin had claimed its existence on many occasions to both local police officers and the Special Police Investigation Team from the UK, but it was never forthcoming. “How could he produce it?” Radcliffe asked the jury rhetorically, “The accusations were false.”
The prosecuting attorney suggested that if the file did not exist it could be perceived by the jury as evidence that Martin made the accusations knowing they were not true. Radcliffe only speculated at motive and said the target may not have been Ennis but Seales, Martin’s boss, with Ennis inadvertently drawn into Martin’s lies.
Radcliffe recounted for the jury the alleged chronology of events relating to Martin’s accusations against Ennis and Seales and up to the arrival of SPIT and the instigation of Operation Tempura. The QC cited leaks that Martin claimed Ennis had made, including RCIPS concerns over Justice Sanderson allegedly having so many guns in his room (“The cleaners got scared"), the issue of the auditor general’s report on the Turtle Farm financing being turned over to the police, drug operations, family disputes causing conflicts of interest for senior police officer Adrian Seales, the need to expedite an ivestigation regarding Dr Frank McField, a former UDP Minister, and the removal of firearms for RCIPS officers, all of which, he said, came from an email inadvertently sent from the RCIPS press office and not a leak by Ennis.
He also said that a major part of Martin’s allegations against Ennis related to the former commissioner’s purchase of the helicopter and that Ennis had regularly contacted Seales to undermine its purchase. Radcliffe revealed that Martin alleged Ennis was telling Seales the purchase was merely to enable the commissioner to increase his own flying time and that the helicopter was not needed. However, in his statement Radcliffe conceded that this evidence against Martin may fall into another category as the jury would hear allegations from witnesses that Seales had encouraged the belief that Ennis was the source for these stories.
Radcliffe will continue with his opening statement on Tuesday when the first witness will be called in a trial that is expected to last two weeks and hear from more than a dozen witnesses, including former police commissioner Stuart Kernohan; Chief Superintendent John Jones, who has just returned to work after being suspended for 18 months in relation to Operation Tempura; John Evans, a former reporter at Net News; Richard Coy a former member of SPIT; as well as Desmond Seales and Deputy Commissioner Anthony Ennis.
Baines says chopper will work
(CNS): The new police commissioner, David Baines, has stated that the helicopter purchased by the Cayman Islands government for the RCIPS will do more than 90% of the things that it was originally earmarked to do. Baines confirmed that the aircraft would be flown down from Louisiana next month, and once the Air Support Unit is trained and operational he will approach the Cayman Islands Civil Aviation Authority for a licence to operate the machine as a police helicopter and have it flying by the end of the year.
Cutting through the politics of the purchase, Baines explained that, as far as he could see, this was always intended to be a police helicopter. Although it has some limitations which would prevent it from doing medical evacuations and the ‘rescue’ part of search and rescue, if the police could demonstrate a high level of safety awareness and training among the crew that would fly and man the helicopter, he believed the CAA would be happy to licence it as a police air support unit.
He said given that the police operate as an emergency service they would then make judgements based on life and death situations within the boundaries of police operations and safety on how the machine was to be used. Above all, Baines noted, given the current situation, the helicopter would be an extremely useful tool for the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service and he hoped to have the helicopter flown here in September. “The provision of a helicopter would provide a much-needed tool in the armoury to tackle the smuggling of people, drugs and guns through the borders of these Islands,” he added.
Speaking as a witness to the Legislative Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday 12 August, Baines took a pragmatic approach. “This is an available asset that will do most of what we want it to do — the best course of action is for us to start using it,” he said. “It fits most of our requirements, even without added expenditure or refit. It is the best option open to us.”
The controversy surrounding the purchase of the EC-135 T1 came to light last year when the previous Cabinet announced at a press briefing that the helicopter purchased by Stuart Kernohan, the former police commissioner, wouldn’t do all of what was originally intended when government had given the green light for an air support unit for the police in November 2006.
In the wake of the political furore and debate that ensued, Auditor General Dan Duguay was asked by the governor to conduct a special report. Duguay found a number of shortcomings: there was a lack of expertise involved in the purchase; a consultant was only hired after the purchase was made; there were limited records of the communication between the former commissioner and previous Cabinet about expectations; there had been a certain amount of mission creep distorting the original purpose of the helicopter; and the parties involved had not engaged the CAA.
Duguay noted that the helicopter became different things to different people and there was never a real consensus on what the country wanted from the helicopter. The Cabinet’s desire to have a helicopter that did everything, from passenger transportation to medical evacuation, would never have been able to be combined in one machine with the police requirements for interdiction and border protection, Duguay explained.
Since his report, the fate of the helicopter has hung in the balance. However, a release following the PAC meeting by Government Information Services on Wednesday afternoon suggests that government is in agreement with Baines and will be bringing the helicopter to the islands.
It appears that many of the limitations cited by the previous administration will be overcome when the machine is operated purely as a police helicopter. Deputy Chief Secretary Franz Manderson said the objective was to integrate it into the RCIPS effort to ensure public safety and border protection for the country.
Bringing the helicopter to Cayman will involve aircraft preparations in the USA, staff selection and training, and identification of a maintenance service provider and pilots, as well as specialized training for the new RCIPS Air Operations Unit that will utilize the helicopter.
GIS said the aircraft completed airworthiness requirements at the Louisiana facility last month and was successfully flight-tested following major servicing. In January the CICAA had reportedly confirmed that there was nothing to prevent the EC135 T1 entering service as a police helicopter, subject tothe certification process.
The helicopter will be able to carry out over-water search operations and is fully-equipped with a daylight and thermal image night-vision camera, a searchlight, and a PA system. Its stabilisation system requires neither an autopilot, nor floatation devices. Aside from minor modifications to fit police tactical radios and a second aviation standard GPS unit, relevant radio systems and to remove redundant equipment, there will be no need to refit the machine, government said.
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Chopper no good says AG
(CNS): Miscommunication, poor documentation and rushed decisions seem to be at the root of the police helicopter fiasco according to a report for the Auditor General’s (AG) office. Following Cabinet’s accusation that the Police Commissioner had misled them over the capabilities of the helicopter and his subsequent denials, Dan Duguay (AG) has said that he was unable to find enough documentation to point fingers but that the helicopter certainly falls short of needs.
However, Duguay has suggested, given that the helicopter was purchased at a price well below its market value if it was to be sold it is likely that the vast majority of costs so far incurred could be recovered. “Evidence presented to me seems to indicate that the helicopter can be sold for most of the funds that have been expended to date on it,” he said in his report. “In other words there seems a good chance that our financial loss may not be significant."
Duguay notes, that the biggest loss is the time already spent acquiring the machine and believes that had more research been undertaken at the start of the project into the details regarding the full requirements of the helicopter and its specific operational capabilities, as well as greater documentation kept throughout the process, things may not have reached this stage.
The AG states that the helicopter purchased does have severe limitations with regards the expectations of Cabinet though not necessarily for law enforcement which is where he believes the communication problems lay. In his report he says that the Commissioner of the Royal Cayman islands Police Service (RCIPS) Stuart Kernohan had specific law enforcement activities in mind when procuring the helicopter which would not necessarily require Instrument Flight Rules capabilities (IFR) as most police operations would require clear visuals to seek out the criminals, consequently Visual Flight Rules (VFR) would have been sufficient. However, as far as Cabinet was concerned any helicopter that was purchased was expected to be capable of engaging in emergency operations and search rescue as well as law enforcement which would require (IFR).
Although Kernohan is currently in the UK as he is suspended from duty as a result of Operation Tempura, Duguay confirms that he discussed the report extensively with Kernohan who believes that the Cabinet was well aware that the helicopter would operate under VFR and not IFR. Duguay notes however, a lack of documentation regarding important meetings between Cabinet and Kernohan and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands (CAAof CI) and Kernohan.
He states that from the very beginning the RCIPS failed to produce a documented needs analysis and that the closest thing to a needs analysis is a Cabinet paper dated 23 November 2006 that defines the government’s expectations which includes emergency evacuations as well as police and border patrol needs. Moreover, Duguay suggests that Kernohan did not appear to define his position to government or the CAA hence the miscommunication.
The AG describes the drive to purchase the helicopter as rushed, although it was clearly good value and more importantly the only one to come on the market for a considerable period. Duguay concludes that even though the commissioner was aware of certain problems relating to IRF, flotation devices and the autopilot, he was unable to confirm if the commissioner (as he asserts) related these problems to the Cabinet or the CAA as there was no supporting documentation for the various meetings that took place between the parties during the procurement process and the refit.
“What was discussed at those meetings is unclear as there were no verbatim minutes of items discussed,” Duguay states in his report and says that he would have thought that Cabinet papers would have been produced for such important meetings.
He says a consultant should have been hired before the purchase rather than after and Duguay states that if the helicopter, currently in Louisiana, is to be sold and the process started again he cites the importance of engaging an expert consultant.
While the AG acknowledges he is no helicopter expert he noted that during the production of the report he learned a number of things and points out that experts note that the list of requirements for this helicopter seem exceptionally wide and that asking for one machine to have such a diverse capability may well be outside the government budget.
Counter-attack on chopper
(CNS): In a detailed statement countering the claims of Stuart Kernohan over the helicopter debacle, the Leader of Government Business today laid out the full process of the helicopter’s acquisition. He detailed the original government requirements of the acquisition versus the state of the helicopter now procured, as well as outlining each step of the process and the fact that the Cayman Islands Civil Aviation Authority has said it will not license the craft as it stands.
Kurt Tibbetts, the LoGB, said that he was not prepared to enter in to a war of words with Police Commissioner Kernohan (even if he has the benefit of full salary with little else to do) but that the government must set the record straight. In a long address to the media and on live television today (18 September) Tibbetts outlined the chain of events surrounding the helicopter’s acquisition, the estimated costs, the advice given to government and the actions taken as the process moved along.
He said that from the outset the government had insisted that any helicopter the country purchased would need to have certain capabilities, and Kernohan was well aware of this. The capabilities included border control, police pursuits, long-range deployment of resources in quick time for all three islands, surveillance and drug interdiction, among others.
The LoGB said government was advised that any helicopter it acquired would need to be fitted with certain role-specificequipment, such as air-to-ground and marine communications, a night-sun searchlight, a public address system, night vision, forward-looking infrared and a winch, to meet the remit.
On 29 November 2006 Tibbetts said that government gave approval to the commissioner for the establishment of a dedicated air-support unit for the RCIPS and for him to establish, then report back, whether it would be better to buy or lease. “There was definitely no lack of clarity on ourpart as to what we wanted to be able to do with the helicopter, what kind of helicopter we needed and what it was felt it would cost,” added Tibbetts. “And we certainly felt that we had no reason to believe that it would not have been possible for the Commissioner of Police with his professed knowledge of helicopters and eagerness to see such a unit established to take the matter forward and report back to us.”
The LoGB explained that on 13 March 2007 Kernohan confirmed that purchasing a helicopter was the best option and he had found one that he believed was suitable. “At no time did the Commissioner of Police advise us that the aircraft lacked any of the capabilities that we had agreed it should have, or lacked the potential to be modified,” he said.
The LoGB also stated that Kernohan had advised that costs were in line with those that had been anticipated: around $1.8 million to buy it plus around $0.4 million to fit it out with the necessary equipment. He said government authorised Kernohan to pursue the purchase subject to getting a professional market assessment on the price. Tibbetts emphasised again that at this point the commissioner never gave any indication that the helicopter might not meet all of the requirements.
In April 2007, Tibbetts said, Kernohan told government that there was a problem with the helicopter’s tracking and balance and a maintenance check was being run but again, said the LoGB, no questions about capabilities were raised. Next, the LoGB said, government were informed on 17 Jul 2007 that the craft was likely to cost more than had been anticipated.
The original estimate of $2.2 million was looking more like $2.5 million due to extras such as finders’ fees, inspections, airfreight, a paint job, reassembly and numerous other add-ons which amounted to $166,200. There were also two major piece of equipment that needed to be fitted — low skid gear with pop-out floats at $126,000 and a rescue hoist at $70,000.
“We had anticipated some of these costs, such as that of the winch, and gave our approval,” said Tibbetts. “But this was the first time we had been advised of the need to add the pop-out floats but took it that these were required.”
At this point, however, the government suggested that consideration should be given to any possibilities of reducing costs, but not if it meant a delay or a reduction in capability. However, in November 2007 costs mounted again when cracks were discovered in the helicopter’s skin after it had been sanded down in preparation for painting.
“We were advised it was mandatory that they be repaired,” said the LoGB, who said the cost was estimated at $10,000. At the same time, he said, the government was also informed that the winch (or hoist) had gone up in price from $70,000 to $200,000. He said government was then advised that the RCIPS was recommending that the money set aside for the "low skid gear and pop-out float" should be deferred to allow for the purchase of the winch. Tibbetts said the commissioner was asked twice what impact, if any, the omission of the "low skid gear and pop-out float" would have on the capabilities of the chopper and he did not indicate it would have any. However LoGB said that Cayman’s CAA has indicated that without the flotation devices the helicopter is restricted to 10 minutes’ flying over water, making flying to the Sister Islands impossible.
The CAA has also noted that the craft is not equipped for flights under instrument flight rules where there is no visual reference to the surface, so it can’t fly in poor weather or at night if establishing a horizon is unattainable.
The LoGB also said that Kernohan took eight months to come to government with his proposals for the storage, maintenance and piloting of the craft once on island. The commissioner eventually said government should approve a proposal it had received from Cayman Islands Helicopters and that Cabinet should tell Central Tenders Committee of the decision. The LoGB said government made it clear they would not circumvent the CTC process and, while they had no issue with the local firm, the matter should still be dealt with by the CTC in the interest of accountability and public scrutiny.
LoGB also added that the process of events surrounding the helicopter issue was well documented in black and white and had nothing to do with notes that were or were not taken by Cabinet as suggested by Kernohan.
Mac calls for chopper probe
(CNS): The contradictory exchange between government and Stuart Kernohan over the police helicopter has prompted McKeeva Bush, Leader of the Opposition, to call for an independent enquiry into the issues surrounding what he describes as the potential waste of public funds in the government’s failed attempt to secure this law enforcement resource. “Something is just not right here,” said Bush in a statement on Tuesday, 16 September.
UDP says government should take responsibility
(CNS): Claims from government about its inability to influence the outcome of various political crisis are a result of poor governance, according to the Leader of the Opposition, McKeeva Bush. He condemned the PPM administration over recent attempts to remove themselves from a range of serious issues, including the so-called helicopter fiasco, the UCCI situation, and the extensive arrears in filing of financial statements of several high profile government bodies.
The Leader of the UDP said in a press statement on Friday, 12 September, that comments made by Kurt Tibbetts, Leader of Government Business, as well as other elected Cabinet ministers, regarding their failure to accept responsibility were not acceptable. “They have been elected by the people to serve and impart whatever influences they can on all parties involved, and this is what they should be doing,” he added.
“Why did they not ensure that adequate due diligence was carried out even taking into account Mr Kernohan’s advice on the helicopter? Where was the pressure from them on those responsible to ensure that the financial statements were filed?” he questioned.