FCO and DG fail to address Miller’s concerns
Government House, Cayman Islands Governor’s Residence
(CNS): Two letters sent to Opposition Leader Ezzard Miller in response to his correspondence confirm the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s decision to remain silent on the suspension of Governor Anwar Choudhury until the internal probe into allegations against him are concluded. One of letters released Thursday was from the overseas territories minister, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, and the other was from Acting Governor Franz Manderson, but both men made it clear they had nothing more to say.
Lord Ahmad was responding to Miller’s concerns about the negative impact the governor’s suspension was having, given the absence of any explanation. However, his very short letter did not include any meaningful reassurances, merely saying that it was not appropriate for him to comment on the nature of the investigation and he hoped it would be concluded soon.
Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, who is currently acting as governor, said virtually the same thing in response to a long memo from Miller that raised a number of questions about the role of Matthew Forbes, the head of the governor’s office, as well as the problems relating to Choudhury’s removal and the silence about the investigation.
Miller had asked about Forbes’ possible conflict of interest, in light of speculation that he may have been one of those who complained about Choudhury or, at the very least, was the conduit through which these unspecified complaints were made. However, the acting governor made no reference to Forbes, his part in the complaints or his current role as the senior UK contact in the absence of an FCO appointed governor.
Category: Government Administration, Local News, Politics
All I read is a bunch of little islanders dreaming up non-sensical conspiracy stories to satisfy their uninteresting lives.
The UK must conform to UK and EU law in regard to a UK citizen, get over it.
If you want independence then push for a vote on it, if not shut up, let this legal process take its course and stop whining like a bunch of back woods dotards.
How is it not a local matter when Cayman is paying the salary of all except Forbes, the conduct apparently occured here, and FCO HR rules probably don’t apply to people it does not employ? The UK can appoint whatever governor it wants but that does not really make the issue non-local.
Is Cayman still paying Anwar’s salary?
If so, why should this continue?
The FCO suspended him so it should pay – NOT the Cayman tax-payer.
Aren’t we still paying a lot of SC that’s on leave thank to Mr Manderson world class SC.
And the end when all hands have been played – FCO will cook Forbes and Forbes’s boy Manderson.
Alden will be weakened and Tara will gradually push her leadership campaign. Hew and Kirkconnell will throw hissy fits to no avail.
McKeeva and Miller will get married again and Alden will turn to Suckoo and Eden to help prop him up but they will support Tara to make Alden disappear.
But we should seek reassurance that our concerns will be passed on… all of them. In detail. I think it’s relevant to the investigation.
Yes, but we said all of this a long time ago.
We clearly explained that Miller is controlled opposition and we clearly explained that NOTHING would be done.
Here are tomorrow’s headlines. Big problem has just arisen, nothing will be done. Lots of money will be paid to a nebulous consultant and Ofreg will have to go halfway around the world, business class, just in case.
There you have it. Simple really.
And Frans is the same one you all parroting to be governor…..loud stueps
I think that Mr. Miller got everyone’s attention including Mr. Manderson , which is very important . And all the Citizens should get behind Mr. Miller and Mr. Suckoo and support them . Not the other ones that are involved in the debacle .
Miller is doing his job as Opposition Leader. Whether or not he receives an answer, he is right to question.
Miller’s letter sought to alert Lord Ahmad to the situation and all its implications, and underscored the importance of wrapping up the investigation as soon as possible. No where did he ask Lord Ahmad to reveal the nature of the investigation, specific or otherwise. Lord Ahmad seemed to imply that by advising that “it was inappropriate” to discuss the specific nature of the investigation.” Duh…
As far as Miller’s memo to Acting Governor Manderson, he similarly did not ask for any disclosure of “specific nature” of the investigation.
He did, however, raise some issues that should be responded to, such as
– who was the author of letter to the editor and why was it co-signed by the “Head of the Governor’s Office”, and exactly what was the job title of Matthew Forbes, who has been otherwise referred to as “Chief of Staff” but for this letter was elevated to “Head of the Governor’s Office”.
-Why was Matthew Forbes so empowered that he appears to be accorded the same status as the Acting Governor, or higher, as the letter spoke about the Acting Governor in the third person!!
-Whether Matthew Forbes was one of the instigators and complainers involved in the investigation, and whether it met standards of propriety for him to be party to a letter about the investigation, and how that reflects on the claimed “fairness” to Governor Choudhury.
– And drawing attention to the fact that Choudhury seemed to have been hung out to dry while the complainers were being accorded the much vaunted FCO protection and confidentiality.
– The fact that the memo proposed to give an update, but was followed by reasons as to why the update could not be given, and
– why six weeks after he original deadline for the conclusion of the FCO finds itself in a situation that it was not possible at all to give a time frame.
And so on.
While Miller may not gained any answers, at least he spotlighted some serious issues.
High on the list of those issues he shone a light on was the power of the FCO acting through Matthew Forbes to the detriment of the authority of the Caymanian Acting Governor. That was obviously the problem suffered by Choudhury who in his foolhardy way dared to buck the system.
This clearly illustrates, by the way, why appointing a Caymanian to the governorship would require major constitutional advancement and more likely independence.
Whether anyone wants to acknowledge this or not the staff at the government admin. Building and the staff at government house did not want to work with the governor because of his religion, race and skin colour. Where the governor made a mistake was not getting rid of all of them and bring his own staff. I don’t really care what you all will comment here so go ahead and make my day.
You are absolutely correct. This should always be done.
Ezzard should concentrate on the school playing field instead of writing hogswash.
You must be some idiot. Ezzard is doing a great job he is the only onebearning a pay check
$100k for a clown. Great value.
100k for a talking clown is money well spent when we also pay over 1.2m to 12 other mute ones.
Why should the FCO be bothered with a nosy regional opposition politician? This is a UK matter.
The more I read comments like this the more this whole debacle stinks like cover-up.
I think they would be very concerned about the things Mr Choudury wanted to address here, and more. Remember Turks?