Another new boss appointed at OfReg
(CNS): The Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) has another new boss. According to the latest government Gazette published on Friday, the Cabinet has appointed Malike Cummings, as the chief executive officer for the beleaguered authority. Cummings, who has come to Cayman from a similar position in Turks and Caicos Islands, appears to have started the top job on 17 September, replacing his predecessor, J.Paul Morgan, who left the job more than a year ago.
No release has yet been issued by OfReg, which continues to come under fire for perceived excessive spending without any tangible results when it comes to regulating the local utilities or managing competition. The office has also been criticised for being top heavy, with directors and chiefs in every section, a near punch-up among board members, and for failing to address some of the key concerns impacting local utilities, particularly how the fuel is priced at the pump.
OfReg has also been criticised over the loss of the local television news channel, as it seemed unable to resolve the issue of local content, and balance the broadcasting licence fees for Cayman 27 against the lack of profitability in producing local programming.
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Category: Politics, Private Sector Oversight
People do understand why OfReg exists right? So that politicians are not held responsible for problems with any area it regulates? While having the same regulator for everything ensures that nothing in fact gets regulated. It is an expensive way of avoiding accountability and doing nothing, that governments around the world use.
Appoint and produce sound bites explaining your appointments all you want CIG, the Cayman Islands are officially the laughing stock of the Caribbean whether you accept that truth are not. #shouldnthavesoldout
ahm in what way is Cayman the laughing stock of the Caribbean? Stop making stupid and baseless statements because you are upset at your own life. Cayman is the envy of the rest of the Caribbean. There is only one country in the Caribbean that is on par with Cayman and that is Bermuda. They envy our financial services industry, many of them have tourism features that we don’t have, but they envy our success and consistency in tourism, and despite the fact that we are not happy with our crime rate, they envy our crime rate. They envy our standard of living, and despite our views on government and governance, they envy our strong government. Despite our demanding the highest standards in education and our frustrations with the job market, they envy our education product, and our job market. When making such a statement one has to back it up with facts, and one must always remember that human beings are capable of making comparisons. So while they are trying hard to get into Cayman and stay here, what exactly is it that you think they are laughing at?
Bermuda is not in the Caribbean, everything else seems correct.
…And Cayman is (for the time being ) not a Caribbean Island, it is an Island in the Caribbean.
Our politicians and Jamaican imports are rapidly changing that , for the sake of wotes.
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Which cayman islands you live in and can we all have the coordinates! LMAO because it sounds like paradise, miles away from the reality of what the Cayman Islands represent today. Where did you ever read that our education standards are the highest anywhere, schools have been failing inspection for years now hence why we’ve spent millions to switch to a British curriculum. Just to sample one of the oxymoronic statements made. You living in a failed state just like the rest of chap. Since your such a big beneficiary of the islands “success”, I suppose you’ve typed this implicit, denial laced rant from your private office, in your gated community home.
Wow. How much Cayman Koolaid have you been drinking? Cherry pick facts much? Where to start? Meh – Why bother – too much and probably above your intelligence level and those simple rose colored glasses…
“Bright spots” in our present public service system will not survive or succeed. To do so you need to be an unethical, inept, “sheep” willing to blindly follow the Lodge masters and sabotage and undermine your way to the top!
Yeah, such ‘bright spots’ stick out like sore thumbs, and they are undermined every step of the way. Blackballed not by Lodge but the establishment they find a way to marginalize them. Because they are a threat to the insecure and incompetent.
OfReg = Former Cable & Wireless grunts and wannabe chiefs. There’s a few who have no clue about a job outside telecommunications and are relics pretending to know something and be able to actual regulate but they seem to only inflate.
4:26 I am reliably told that those former “bright spots” that Cable & Wirless had are no longer in telecommunications. Apparently they have proven they can flourish in other industries, much to OfReg’s loss. True talent will survive anywhere.
Sure. Wink 😉 .And I have a bridge over North Sound to sell ya.
Ignorance is bliss. Guess you think the internet was always here and it just magically happened too!
Your moniker as “The Great Pretender” really suits you.
There’s an s at the end of Pretender…but since it seems to have gone over your head, it’s references the handful of OfReg Indians and Chiefs whom I believe are lacking in their respective rolls and are overpaid for the results thus far.
If Ali and all the rest cant take over, are they dunces? let them go then… save us a ton of money
What does OfReg do? Can anyone tell me in the most simplest way? What’s the cost / benefit of that Authority?
The Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) is the independent multi-sector regulatory authority established by the enactment of the Utility Regulation and Competition Law 2016 and commenced operations on 16 January 2017.
OfReg is an amalgamation of the Information and Communications Technology Authority (ICTA), the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), and the Petroleum Inspectorate, which hitherto had been a Department of the Government of the Cayman Islands.
While many of the functions previously carried out by the ICTA and ERA will continue as usual, in addition, OfReg is endowed with strengthened competition and consumer protection powers, as well as a duty to promote innovation in the sectors for which it has responsibility.
OfReg will provide the opportunity for consistency and collaboration in regulation across the ICT, energy, fuel and water sectors, better utilisation of skills and resources resulting in more efficient and effective regulatory processes, encourage competition where appropriate and feasible, champion sustainability and innovation across markets, and contribute to the economic and social goals of the Cayman Islands.
And yet it produces nothing but scandals, costs and rate increases.
7.54am This sounds very much like a statement prepared byOfReg’s consultants, they have nobody capable of producing this narrative.
Someone learned how to cut and paste…
I Googled him and learned he is from Guyana, that he has some qualifications.
We were doing just as well without Of Reg. Before more money is wasted, please just shut it down. They are doing nothing save for costing us money and doing nothing to regulate the utilities and in fact giving them everything the need to keep ripping us off..The have done nothing with CUC, the Gas companies or Cayman Water and the continue to rape us daily..
I would like to know why Robert Tatum is no longer at Ofreg? He seemed to be one of the few bright spots
Shut down Offreg and bring it back into the civil service. Offreg is full of Chiefs. They lack civil service discipline. Look at how much money is wasted on vehicles, travel and paying board members.
This special regulatory body was set up to negotiate the best possible deal for the Caymanian. All it has done thus far, is cust is an arm and a leg. They all thus far should hold their heads in shame.
Don’t ask me no questions and I won’t tell you no lies. So don’t ask me about OfReg business and I won’t tell you goodbye.
So what exactly is Christen Suckoo doing in this department?
Government need to close that office down. OfReg is only eating up government (the people) money. They have not done anything to help lower the cost of utilities for consumers at all.
lodge hotel…lol😉 you can check in any time you like..but you can never leave…hotel california!😄😃
OfReg has many doubters but the Talent is clearly there. Let the organization do its work and stop doubting.
What are they doing except approving every UTILITY company request for a rate hike, especially in the summer months?!
I would really appreciate someone telling me what they really do, thanks in advance
4.09pm This has to be sarcasm, the only talent they have is inventing excuses for overseas trips.
Indeed it is 7:28.
Welcome to the lodge brother.
You applied to the lodge and they would tske you in or wha?
No, I do not pledge allegiance to Lucifer.
Sound like you know what you speak of…..not!!!
CNS A good summary of the failings of this disastrous “Authority”, however you should have highlighted their off the scale travel expenses involving most of the staff, “justified” they said by the need to send staff away for training. This explanation failed to explain why they had hired so many staff (presumably Caymanian) who could not not do the work they were hired for.
Mr Cummings has an impossible job on his hands, but hopefully he will not need to go off for training.
Not a good time to enter your new job bobo.