Women withdrew support for port complaints
(CNS): The author of the Internal Audit Service report that dismissed sexual misconduct allegations against a senior manager at the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands has said it was not just the freedom of information request that came in around the same time the complaints were made that led to the rejection of the allegations. Andy Bonner told CNS this week that when the auditors met with the women who put their names to the complaint, the majority of them no longer stood by it. They said that they “had been wrongly motivated into signing it as an unduly rushed reaction to the FOI interest”.
Bonner said the “suspect” nature of the complaint was due only in part to the timing of the FOI request, as the women’s lack of continuing support for the complaint was a major factor. He said the project team had human resource expertise to assist with the interpretation and explained that the residual matters that the auditors did find did not constitute sexual harassment.
Concerns have been raised about the allegations and what appears to be the dismissal of the complaints, that were originally made by nine women, despite the high number of reported incidences, allegedly made over a long period. In the era of the Me Too Movement, there has been more scrutiny into how government is dealing with these types of complaints.
Bonner said he believed that the authority had responded appropriately to the IAS recommendations.
“In my view, the actions that PACI have now committed to in response to the report recommendations will help to ensure appropriate behaviours in the workplace going forwards and strengthen the culture through which any diversions to the expected standards are detected, reported and acted upon,” he said.
The question of sexual harassment and misconduct in the workplace in both the public and private sector rarely makes headlines, as victims tend to be reluctant to go on the record. Despite the introduction of a code of conduct and policy in the civil service, the passage of whistle-blowing legislation and the Gender Equality Law, which defines sexual harassment as discrimination, many people continue to remain silent about the harassment they face.
According to the results of an FOI request made by the television news station Cayman 27, only two complaints have been made by government workers since the introduction of the civil service policy more than two years ago. The first complaint was in November at the Home Affairs Ministry, where a letter of warning was reportedly issued. The second was made to the portfolio of finance and economics and is still under investigation.
See CIG Workplace Sexual Harassment Policy in the CNS Library
Category: Local News
That is a silly explanation, if ever there was one, and simply brings more curiosity to the case. There is no way all these women were confused or mistaken. Either they were coached by a very interested party, or they were convinced to drop their complaints by an interested party through intimidation or other means. But, given the old boys club in the CI, I suspect we will never know the truth. Such a shame, especially given that we all have daughters that will have to grow up and make their ways through this stinky situation.
Well everyone in the Ministry of Finance knows who is being investigated. Even Maritime knows as one employee’s wife loves showing her Whats App messages and sharing what she sees or hears from others. Sad part is that the two lovers are oblivious to the fact that everyone else can see what is transpiring between them. Let’s meet for our afternoon tea shall we and later we kiss goodbye until tomorrow.
I want to know how many withdraw their complaint! if it was 2 of the 9 and we are making assumptions based on that its ridiculous!
I posted this on an earlier article and after reading this one I believe it is correct 110%..
The reason why he is cleared is quite obvious to everyone in the room.
Sandra Hill and her Cayman Marl Road wanting to be the first out the gate as always tainted the investigation.
By her meddling and posting against him and pushing the issue before any action was taken it made the credibility of the accusation worthless.
As a woman I am approached daily by men and the men here in Cayman are very well versed in how to cover their tracks. No way in hell am I going to her to assist me with getting the story out. The moment they did that it ruined their credibility.
Sandra Hill in her haste messed up this investigation before it even started. Rushed it just to be first. I too would worry about confidentility coming from her. Anything to be first. Amateur journalism.
Part of the reason why the women withdrew was due to the lack of confidentiality throughout this whole process and the fact that this was made out to be all about sexual misconduct when that was absolutely not the case.
The reason they withdrew was based on the fact that they realized , too late, that they had been coerced by a disgruntled employee to push a personal vendetta.
A lot of veiled truth in 6.32’s post.
It is no wonder that women decide not to pursue these types of complaints and suffer in silence. They are dragged through the mud, they are not believed, they have to go through humiliation after humiliation and yes, of course there are always the threats to their jobs (or worse!) if they pursue their complaints. it takes a very special person to be able to go through all that and the victims here are not to blame for not wanting to go through it.
Yes this is a perfect example of why many women do not report being the victim of sexual harassment or asssult. When I was twenty three years old I was the victim of sexual assault and although the proper authorities were called to the scene I chose not to have the case go to court. Why? Because at that young age I was ashamed and embarrassed and afraid of having my name spread all over the Island or worse….having people say I was to blame. I am willing to bet that these women we’re threatened and withdrew their claims out of fear. We may be living in the year 2018 but our justice system as far as rights for women is still in the dark ages.
Probably finally realized how they were being used in the game of office politics by someone else who was not coming back.
Correction to the above comment , wrong article . was ment for the worthless bedroom scumbag intruder.
Doubt very much the majority revolked their complaint freely.
right…….
Still doesn’t explain why the PACI decided to handle this internally when the complaints were potentially matters for RCIPS.
Witch hunt.
This whole thing is very suspect. So the women make the complaint one day and withdraw it the next? Either the complainants or the Port are playing games here. The FOI should not have been mentioned and has no bearing on anything. Something is rotten in Denmark. The way this was handled doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence that such complaints will be handled appropriately in CIG.
“The FOI should not have been mentioned and has no bearing on anything.”
100%
Poor women probably had their jobs threatened. SMH
It’s simply called political reprisal.
Pardon?
So let me get this straight …. an FOI request is filed with the Port asking about sexual misconduct complaints on one day and the next day 9 women felt compelled to rush in a formal complaint of sexual misconduct???
This makes no sense.
Now we understand the political motivation to do this in favor of Who?
…..out of fear of retribution. Another example of public service corruption at play!
Treason! #Truthistreason.